Synthesis of amphiphilic aminated inulin via ‘click chemistry’ and evaluation for its antibacterial activity

Semisynthesis and characterization of versatile azide intermediates using sodium alginate and its homopolymeric derivatives as starting material

Alginate, a polyuronic biopolymer composed of mannuronic and guluronic acid units, contain hydroxyl and carboxyl groups as targeting modification sites to obtain structures with new and/or improved biological properties. The copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) is a versatile click reaction for polymer functionalization, but it typically requires a "pre-click" modification to introduce azide or alkyne groups. Here, we described a straightforward chemical path to selectively modify alginate carboxyl groups producing versatile azido derivatives through N-acylation using 3-azydopropylamine. The resulting azide-functionalized polysaccharides underwent click chemistry to yield amino derivatives, confirmed by NMR and FTIR analyses. The 1H NMR spectrum reveals a characteristic triazole group signal at 8.15 ppm. The absence of the azide FTIR band for all amino derivatives, previously observed for the N-acylation products, indicated reaction success. Antibacterial and antioxidant assessments revealed that the initial polysaccharide lacks E. coli inhibition, while the click chemistry-derived amine products exhibit growth inhibition at 5.0 mg/mL. Lower molecular weight derivatives demonstrate superior DPPH scavenging ability, particularly amino-derivatives (24-33 % at 1.2 mg/mL). This innovative chemical pathway offers a promising strategy for developing polysaccharide structures with enhanced properties, demonstrating potential applications in various fields.

Biomass-derived isosorbide-based thermoresponsive hydrogel for drug delivery

Herein, we describe the design and synthesis of a new variety of bio-based hydrogel films using a Cu(I)-catalyzed photo-click reaction. These films exhibited thermal-triggered swelling-deswelling and were constructed by crosslinking a triazide derivative of glycerol ethoxylate and dialkyne structures derived from isosorbide, a well-known plant-based platform molecule. The success of the click reaction was corroborated through infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the smooth surface of the obtained films was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal characterization was carried out in terms of thermogravimetry (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), from which the decomposition onset and glass transition temperatures were determined, respectively. Additionally, mechanical properties of the samples were estimated by stress-strain experiments. Then, their swelling and deswelling properties were systematically examined in PBS buffer, revealing a thermoresponsive behavior that was successfully tested in the release of the anticancer drug doxorubicin. We also confirmed the non-cytotoxicity of these materials, which is a fundamental aspect for their potential use as drug carriers or tissue engineering matrices.

Nanomaterials-Based Combinatorial Therapy as a Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Since the discovery of antibiotics, humanity has been able to cope with the battle against bacterial infections. However, the inappropriate use of antibiotics, the lack of innovation in therapeutic agents, and other factors have allowed the emergence of new bacterial strains resistant to multiple antibiotic treatments, causing a crisis in the health sector. Furthermore, the World Health Organization has listed a series of pathogens (ESKAPE group) that have acquired new and varied resistance to different antibiotics families. Therefore, the scientific community has prioritized designing and developing novel treatments to combat these ESKAPE pathogens and other emergent multidrug-resistant bacteria. One of the solutions is the use of combinatorial therapies. Combinatorial therapies seek to enhance the effects of individual treatments at lower doses, bringing the advantage of being, in most cases, much less harmful to patients. Among the new developments in combinatorial therapies, nanomaterials have gained significant interest. Some of the most promising nanotherapeutics include polymers, inorganic nanoparticles, and antimicrobial peptides due to their bactericidal and nanocarrier properties. Therefore, this review focuses on discussing the state-of-the-art of the most significant advances and concludes with a perspective on the future developments of nanotherapeutic combinatorial treatments that target bacterial infections.

Potential applications of hydrophobically modified inulin as an active ingredient in functional foods and drugs - A review

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Inulin is a substance found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

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Inulin was modified by physical and chemical means to improve functionality.

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HMI has been used in the stability of emulsions and suspensions.

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SCFAs inulin esters have transformed the gut microbiota and improved the bioavailability of SCFAs.

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HMI based bioconjugates, hydrogel, and nanomicelles were used as a controlled release of drugs and vaccines.

Over the past few years, hydrophobically modified inulin (HMI) has gained considerable attention due to its multitudinous features. The targeted release of drugs remains a subject of research interest. Moreover, it is important to explore the properties of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) inulin esters because they are less studied. Additionally, HMI has been used to stabilize various dispersion formulations, which have been observed to be safe because inulin is generally recognized as safe (GRAS). However, the results regarding HMI-based dispersion products are dispersed throughout the literature. This comprehensive review is discussed the possible limitations regarding SCFAs inulin esters, real food dispersion formulations, and HMI drugs. The results revealed that SCFAs inulin esters can regulate the human gut microbiota and increase the biological half-life of SCFAs in the human body. This comprehensive review discusses the versatility of HMI as a promising excipient for the production of hydrophobic drugs.

Pharmacological and Cellular Significance of Triazole-Surrogated Compounds

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Heterocyclic compounds have been at the hierarchy position in academia, and industrial arena, particularly the compounds containing triazole-core are found to be potent with a broad range of biological activities. The resistance of triazole ring towards chemical (acid and base) hydrolysis, oxidative and reductive reaction conditions, metabolic degradation and its higher aromatic stabilization energy makes it a better heterocyclic core as therapeutic agents. These triazole-linked compounds are used for clinical purposes for antifungal, anti-mycobacterium, anticancer, anti-migraine and antidepressant drugs. Triazole scaffolds are also found to act as a spacer for the sake of covalent attachment of the high molecular weight bio-macromolecules with an experimental building blocks to explore structure-function relationships. Herein, several methods and strategies for the synthesis of compounds with 1,2,3-triazole moiety exploring Hüisgen, Meldal and Sharpless 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between azide and alkyne derivatives have been deliberated for a series of representative compounds. Moreover, this review article highlights in-depth applications of the [3+2]-cycloaddition reaction for the advances of triazole-containing antibacterial as well as metabolic labelling agents for the in vitro and in vivo studies on cellular level.

Preparation, characterization and antibacterial properties of 6-deoxy-6-arginine modified chitosan

In this study, 6-deoxy-6-arginine modified chitosan (DAC), was synthesized and characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), ¹H and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and elemental analysis. The arginine was grafted onto C6 groups of chitosan. Antibacterial activity of DAC against gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were investigated at concentration between 0.02 mg/mL and 10 mg/mL. Cell viability assessment was estimated in vitro with Caco-2 and L929 cells. Water solubility of DAC at different pH was also evaluated. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) of DAC against S. aureus and E. coli were 0.078 mg/mL and 0.312 mg/mL, respectively. The minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against S. aureus and E. coli was 0.625 mg/mL. The cytotoxicity of chitosan and DAC was not significantly different. It demonstrated that DAC might be a potential safe antibacterial agent.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Antifungal Activity of Schiff Bases of Inulin Bearing Pyridine ring

As a renewable, biocompatible, and biodegradable polysaccharide, inulin has a good solubility in water and some physiological functions. Chemical modification is one of the important methods to improve the bioactivity of inulin. In this paper, based on 6-amino-6-deoxy-3,4-acetyl inulin (3), three kinds of Schiff bases of inulin bearing pyridine rings were successfully designed and synthesized. Detailed structural characterization was carried out using FTIR, ¹³C NMR, and ¹H NMR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. Moreover, the antifungal activity of Schiff bases of inulin against three plant pathogenic fungi, including Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.niveum, and Phomopsis asparagi, were evaluated using in vitro hypha measurements. Inulin, as a natural polysaccharide, did not possess any antifungal activity at the tested concentration against the targeted fungi. Compared with inulin and the intermediate product 6-amino-6-deoxy-3,4-acetyl inulin (3), all the synthesized Schiff bases of inulin derivatives with >54.0% inhibitory index at 2.0 mg/mL exhibited enhanced antifungal activity. 3NS, with an inhibitory index of 77.0% exhibited good antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea at 2.0 mg/mL. The synthesized Schiff bases of inulin bearing pyridine rings can be prepared for novel antifungal agents to expand the application of inulin.

Radical Scavenging Activities of Novel Cationic Inulin Derivatives

Many saccharides are attractive targets for biomaterial applications, due to their abundance, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In this article, a synthesis process of 6-N-substituted cationic inulin derivatives, including 6-pyridyl-6-deoxyinulin bromide (PIL), 6-(2-amino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (2APIL), 6-(3-amino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (3APIL), 6-(4-amino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (4APIL), 6-(2,3-diamino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (2,3DAPIL), 6-(3,4-diamino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (3,4DAPIL), and 6-(2,6-diamino-pyridyl)-6-deoxyinulin bromide (2,6DAPIL) was described. The C₆-OH of inulin was first activated by PPh₃/N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) bromination. Then, pyridine and different kinds of amino-pyridine groups (different position and different numbers of amino) were grafted onto inulin, respectively, via nucleophilic substitution. Then, we confirmed their structure by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. After this, their radical scavenging activities against hydroxyl radical and diphenylpicryl phenylhydrazine (DPPH) radical were tested in vitro. Each derivative showed a distinct improvement in radical scavenging activity when compared to inulin. The hydroxyl-radical scavenging effect decreased in the following order: 3APIL > PIL > 3,4DAPIL > 4APIL > 2,3DAPIL > 2,6DAPIL > 2APIL. Amongst them, 3APIL revealed the most powerful scavenging effect on hydroxyl radicals, as well as DPPH radicals. At 1.6 mg/mL, it could completely eliminate hydroxyl radicals and could clear 65% of DPPH radicals. The results also showed that the steric hindrance effect and the substitute position of the amino group had an effect on the radical scavenging activity. Moreover, the application prospects of inulin derivatives as natural antioxidant biomaterials are scientifically proven in this paper.

Novel Water Soluble Chitosan Derivatives with 1,2,3-Triazolium and Their Free Radical-Scavenging Activity

Chitosan is an abundant and renewable polysaccharide, which exhibits attractive bioactivities and natural properties. Improvement such as chemical modification of chitosan is often performed for its potential of providing high bioactivity and good water solubility. A new class of chitosan derivatives possessing 1,2,3-triazolium charged units by associating “click reaction” with efficient 1,2,3-triazole quaternization were designed and synthesized. Their free radical-scavenging activity against three free radicals was tested. The inhibitory property and water solubility of the synthesized chitosan derivatives exhibited a remarkable improvement over chitosan. It is hypothesized that triazole or triazolium groups enable the synthesized chitosan to possess obviously better radical-scavenging activity. Moreover, the scavenging activity against superoxide radical of chitosan derivatives with triazolium (IC₅₀ < 0.01 mg mL⁻¹) was more efficient than that of derivatives with triazole and Vitamin C. In the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl radical-scavenging assay, the same pattern were observed, which should be related to the triazolium grafted at the periphery of molecular chains.

Novel 1,2,3-triazolium-functionalized inulin derivatives: synthesis, free radical-scavenging activity, and antifungal activity

A new class of inulin derivatives possessing 1,2,3-triazolium charged units by associating “click reaction” with efficient 1,2,3-triazole quaternization were designed and synthesized. The synthesized inulin derivatives possess excellent free radical-scavenging ability.

Synthesis, characterization, and antibacterial property of novel starch derivatives with 1,2,3-triazole

Four novel starch-linked-1,2,3-triazole derivatives were synthesized including 6-hydroxymethyltriazole-6-deoxy starch (HMTST), 6-bromomethyltriazole-6-deoxy starch (BMTST), 6-chloromethyltriazole-6-deoxy starch (CMTST), and 6-carboxyltriazole-6-deoxy starch (CBTST). Their antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were evaluated in vitro, respectively. The inhibitory property of the obtained amphiprotic starch derivatives exhibited a remarkable improvement over starch. And the antibacterial indices of most of the products were higher than 60% and 40% at 1.0 mg/mL when the culture time was 8 h and 16 h, respectively. Moreover, the inhibitory index of CBTST attained 97% above at 1.0 mg/mL. Generally, the inhibitory activity decreased in the order: CBTST>CMTST>BMTST>HMTST>starch. Furthermore, the order of their antibacterial activity was consistent with the electron-withdrawing property of different substituted groups of the 1,2,3-triazole groups. The substituted groups with stronger electron withdrawing ability relatively possessed greater antibacterial activity.

Preparation, characterization and antibacterial activity of octenyl succinic anhydride modified inulin

Octenyl succinic anhydride modified inulin (In-OSA) was synthesized via chemical modification of inulin with octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA). The esterification of inulin with OSA was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and degree of substitution (DS) calculation. Antibacterial activity of In-OSA against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was investigated by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and inhibition rate determination. The results showed that inhibition rates against both E.coli and S. aureus increased with the increase of the In-OSA concentration. And the MICs against E. coli and S. aureus were 1% and 0.5% (w/v), respectively. The antibacterial mechanism was analyzed with the results of the proteins and nucleic acids leakage, SEM and negative staining transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Both the leakages of proteins and nucleic acids increased with the increase of the In-OSA concentration. The leakage occurred mainly in the early stage which indicated that cell membrane and wall were destroyed by In-OSA quickly. The images of SEM and negative staining TEM suggested that the cell membranes and cell walls of S. aureus were damaged more severely and even destroyed completely; but only pores appeared on the surface of E. coli.