Noraini Ahmad
senior lecturer
Title: The Branched-Chain Glycolipid nanoparticles with liquid crystalline and self-assembly properties as new drug carrier systems
Biography
Biography: Noraini Ahmad
Abstract
Synthetic glycolipids have attracted a great deal of attention due to their biosurfactant properties, biocompatibility, biodegradability, nonionic nature and its ability to mimic the natural glycolipids which are difficult to extract and require high cost. Glycolipids are amphiphilic surfactants which have the ability to self-assemble and thus have high potential to be used as drug carrier systems. In this research, the liquid crystalline and self-assembly properties of branched-chain glycolipid namely 2-hexyldecyl-β(/α)-D–glucoside (2-HDG) have been investigated. The liquid crystalline phase behaviour of this 2-HDG has been studied through thermal transitions by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and under thermotropic and lyotropic conditions by optical polarizing microscope (OPM) and further confirmed by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Due to its amphiphilic characteristic, 2-HDG formed a focal conic texture of columnar phase thermotropically, whereas inverted hexagonal dispersions (hexosomes) have been observed in binary aqueous media. The critical aggregation concentrations (CAC) were studied for the glycolipid surfactant and mixed surfactants systems of glycolipid and Tween series. The results exhibited that the addition of co-surfactant to the glycolipids dispersions has reduced the CAC value of 2-HDG, thus making the system more stable. The CAC values decreased in the order of 2-HDG > 2HDG-Tween 20 > 2HDG-Tween 40 > 2HDG-Tween 60 > 2HDG-Tween 80. The formations of 2-HDG and 2-HDG-Tween hexosomes were further investigated in terms of their particles size and morphology. Thus, this branched-chain glycolipid provided an alternative nonionic surfactant with interesting phase behaviour and high potential nanoparticles (hexosomes) which could be used as drug carrier systems in the future.