- A Mexican investigation seeks to obtain albumin nanoparticles.
- The purpose is to encapsulate drugs and direct them specifically to the area where they must act.
- If the proposal works, it could be used in the treatment of diseases such as atherosclerosis.
Technology has made significant advances that are used every day and in various fields. But the most important thing is when it is applied in aspects of enormous relevance such as health. At this point is where nanotechnology appears and now has the new goal of creating perfect drugs. By this he means that they are directed only at the affected cells and leave the healthy ones intact.
In this case, most current drugs are systemic and this implies that they must enter the entire bloodstream in order to reach the affected area with the ideal concentration. For this reason, a research group led by Lino Sánchez Segura, attached to the Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato, designs nanotechnological systems to encapsulate drugs and direct them specifically to the area where they must act.
How does the Mexican proposal work?
The encapsulation of a drug helps the administered substance to reach the affected cells in an active form and reduce adverse effects. In this sense, a scientific report published in the journal Scientific Reports, with the title “Post-synthesis nanostructuration of BSA-Capsaicin nanoparticles generated by sucrose excipient” has devoted special attention to the study of the production of albumin nanoparticles.
This protein is abundant in the circulatory system and, due to its molding capacity, allows it to be assembled to form nanometric-sized structures, with the capacity to encapsulate and transport metabolites.
“The mechanism of transformation of albumin into nanoparticles has been extensively studied, but only a few analyzes have focused on the description of the stages after synthesis. That is, the stability, the storage, the effect of the excipient and the changes of the physicochemical properties after the dispersion”.
Cinvestav’s contribution focused on generating a safer new technology, since most of the nanostructured drugs or that use biopolymers tend to lose stability over time, but they found an excipient. It is the component that serves to give consistency, shape and flavor to a drug, which helped long-term storage stability.
Expected benefits
The study focused on improving the useful life of these drugs and for this, they subjected nanoparticles to controlled dehydration media, where they used sodium chloride and deionized water. With this, it was revealed that the protein is not stable and as time passes, it releases units that made up the original structure and lead to the loss of the drug. However, when they were dried with sucrose, they improved some aspects of size, morphology and characteristics such as the zeta potential, that is, the surface charge that a particle has.
Later, as an alternative to encapsulation, they used a secondary metabolite called capsaicin. It is the active compound that gives chilies pungency and has important characteristics such as being hydrophobic, having physiological activity in humans and antimicrobial activity, which allows moderating the effect of a drug.
This drug was tested on the rhodotorula fungus, commonly found in ventilation systems, water dispensers, and even commercial ice. Recently, an unusual pathogenic activity has been observed, since there are reports that it produces fungal infections in individuals with immunosuppression.
“We found that by adding this simulated drug model (capsaicin) the fungus responds favorably to medium concentrations and stops growing with high doses. This allows us to have a system that, by adding the drug in aqueous solutions, reaches the cells to produce the desired effect”.
After this research, it is sought that nanotechnology and the creation of perfect drugs can be used in the treatment of atherosclerosis. It is a disease that is caused by the formation of a plaque due to the accumulation of lipids within the arterial walls, which can restrict blood flow.