Francisco Fábio Oliveira de Sousa
Federal University of Amapa School of Pharmacy, Brazil
Title: Biopharmaceutical and functional activities improvement by drug-biopolymers association
Biography
Biography: Francisco Fábio Oliveira de Sousa
Abstract
Zein is a biodegradable protein found in the maize endosperm (Zea mays). In the pharmaceutical industry, it has been used as a coating agent in solid forms and in the composition of drug delivery systems, where it has shown the ability to entrap drugs, lipids and genetic material, promoting their controlled release. Its biological potential has gained attention lately. Thus, the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of zein solely have been identified, but barely explored. The associations of biopolymers to drugs could result in synergistic or additive effects, depending on the structure, solubility, partition coefficient and chemical interactions to the other compounds, resulting in new outcomes. In view of the biological properties of zein, we assessed the improvement in the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of this biopolymer when associated to some phenolic bioactive, such as Ellagic Acid (EA). Their chemical association was accessed by 1H saturation Transfer-Difference Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (STD-NMR) to explain these outcomes. The micro dilution method was used to assess the minimum inhibitory and bactericide concentrations. The antioxidant activity was determined using the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazila free radical scavenging method. EA has shown inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and an antioxidant IC50 of 0.079 mg/mL. Zein has shown antimicrobial and antioxidant activities itself and enhanced synergically the antioxidant and the antimicrobial activity against P. aeruginosa when combined with EA. 1H STD-NMR experiment confirmed the formation of a complex between EA and zein that could be related with the improvement on its biological performance over the individual compounds.