Application of Three-Dimensionally Printed Probe and Reservoir to Critical Micelle Concentration Determination by Microvolume Surface Tension Measurement.

It is important to determine a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of a surfactant in a protein formulation for stabilizing the protein at maximum by preventing it from interfacial denaturation. There are several techniques for CMC determination. Among them, surface tensiometry is the most common approach because this has a long history and much data at many research fields. However, large amount of sample solution is usually required for the measurement (e.g., more than 1 mL is necessary when a standard reservoir like a glass petri dish is used). This is one of the hurdles for protein formulators because only a small amount of protein could be used at the early-stage development. In this research, we tried to minimize the required amount of sample solution for surface tension measurement by developing appropriate probe and reservoir using a three-dimensional printer (3D printer). The advantages and capabilities of 3D printer are (1) to control the shape and size of the printed material precisely, (2) to change the figure freely, and (3) to prepare the prototype quickly. After the experiments and thereby the refinement of probe as well as reservoir, we found that CMCs of polysorbate 20, polysorbate 80, and poloxamer 188 in water and protein formulations could be precisely detected using a probe 0.5 mm in diameter and small reservoir with a pocket of 7.5 mm in diameter/0.25 mm in depth which were made by a 3D printer. Furthermore, the required sample solution per each measurement could be reduced to 80 µL, which means more than 90% reduction against a standard reservoir.

CMC determination of nonionic surfactants in protein formulations using ultrasonic resonance technology.

Biological products often contain surfactants as stabilizers in their formulations to avoid surface adsorption, interfacial denaturation and aggregation of the protein drug and thereby improve the overall pharmaceutical quality of the product. On the other hand, when the surfactant concentration exceeds the critical micelle concentration (CMC) in a protein formulation, protein-loaded micelles could be formed which could potentially be the cause of immunogenicity. Therefore, the actual CMC and the presence of micelles generally need to be confirmed for each protein formulation because the CMC is affected by the presence of protein and other formulation factors. In this study, the ultrasonic resonance technology (URT) was applied to determine CMC of surfactants in pharmaceutical protein solutions in comparison with surface tensiometry (TE) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). According to our results, the ultrasonic resonance technology can easily and precisely provide CMCs of surfactants in protein formulations while it is not working for protein-free formulations. This indicates that the signal we measure with ultrasonic velocity comes from complex micelles composed of surfactant and protein molecules. DLS did not provide reliable data for protein/surfactant systems. Interestingly, a protein formulation with arginine and polysorbate 20 behaved differently when studied with TE and URT allowing us to see that arginine is bound to protein and that the complex interacts with the surfactant.

Systematic lactose-functionalization of amphiphilic octaamine macrocycle as a gene carrier. Optimization of the charge, size, toxicity, and receptor factors for hepatocyte targeting.

We investigated the transfection properties of singly and triply lactose-functionalized derivatives, Lac(1) and Lac(3), and non-glycosylated one, Lac(0), of calix[4]resorcarene-based amphiphilic octaamine 1 in light of those previously reported for more extensively glycosylated compounds Lac(5) and Lac(8). They all strongly bind to the luciferase-encoding plasmid DNA pCMVluc (7040 base-pairs) with a saturation stoichiometry of Lac(n)/P approximately =0.5 (n=0, 1, or 3) or 0.7 (n=5 or 8), where P stands for a phosphate moiety of the plasmid DNA. The resulting carrier-DNA conjugates are positively charged and monomeric (monomolecular with respect to DNA) as such when n=0 or 1, neutral and monomeric when n=3, or neutral and aggregated when n=5 or 8. Transfection of HeLa (uterine) and HepG2 (hepatic) cell lines shows a general trend of decreasing luciferase expression efficiencies (E) in lively cells as well as cytotoxicities with increasing n's. The cell selectivities for HepG2 over HeLa sharply increase with increasing n's; E(HepG2)/E(HeLa)=0.3, 0.6, 7, 14, and 120 for Lac(0), Lac(1), Lac(3), Lac(5), and Lac(8), respectively, as a result of specific receptor pathway involving the asialoglycoprotein receptors on the hepatic (HepG2) cell surfaces and clustering lactose moieties of the carrier-DNA conjugates. The toxicity-corrected, overall efficiency of gene delivery to hepatocytes is optimized at Lac(3), which forms compactly packed (approximately 40 nm), charge-masked (xi approximately = 0 mV), and less toxic virus-like particles capable of receptor-mediated hepatocyte targeting.

RNAi silencing of exogenous and endogenous reporter genes using a macrocyclic octaamine as a "compact" siRNA carrier. Studies on the nonsilenced residual activity.

A macrocyclic octaamine 1 having a covalently linked lipid-bundle structure was introduced as a new type of siRNA carrier. Gel electrophoresis, DLS, and SPR results indicate that it strongly binds to a luciferase-targeting 21-mer (42P) siRNA with a ratio of 1/P congruent with 0.3 (1/N congruent with 2.4) to give remarkably compact 1-siRNA complexes with an average size of approximately 10 nm. The 1-mediated siRNA silencing of the exogenous luciferase gene occurs with a 90-95% efficiency. The overall suppression-[siRNA] profile with a 5-10% residual activity in the saturation region is commonly observed irrespective of the cell type (HeLa, HepG2, or HEK293), the order, or timing (stepwise or simultaneous) of supply of the siRNA and that of the luciferase-encoding plasmid, the level of mRNA transcribed, or the type of carriers (1 vs lipofectamine 2000). The silencing of the endogenous DsRed2 gene stably incorporated in the genome of HeLa cells also has a similar overall profile. These results suggest that (1) the cellular uptake of the plasmid and that of the siRNA are basically independent of each other and (2) the incomplete silencing is not due to insufficient siRNA delivery. Implication of item 2 is briefly discussed.

CHOP: visualization of 'wobbling' and isolation of highly conserved regions from aligned DNA sequences.

The web software CHOP was developed to visualize the 'wobbling' in the third codon position of aligned DNA sequences. The simple features of this tool allow users to easily find regions suspected of containing coding sequences (CDSs). The program also allows visualization of the nucleotide diversity between two genomic or gene sequences by graphically plotting the percentage identity between the two sequences. CHOP can also isolate highly conserved regions within both CDSs and non-CDSs. Highly conserved regions within CDSs include the regions with lower rates of synonymous substitution in which nucleotide sequences are expected to be under strong selective pressure. CHOP is available at http://bunsei2.med.u-tokai.ac.jp:8080/~ohtsuka/cds_finding.html.

Artificial viruses and their application to gene delivery. Size-controlled gene coating with glycocluster nanoparticles.

Number- and size-controlled macromolecular associations are common in biology with viruses as a typical example. We report here a novel example of artificial viruses, in which the double-helical DNA is coated with 4-nm sized neutral glycocluster nanoparticles (GNPs) with a coating stoichiometry of approximately 2 GNPs per helical pitch (10 base pairs), where GNP arises from micellization of a cone-shaped, quadruple-chain glycocluster amphiphile having eight saccharide moieties with beta-glucoside termini on the calix[4]resorcarene macrocycle. The resulting "glycoviruses" are compactly packed (54 nm in the case of 7040 base-pair plasmid pCMVluc), are well charge-shielded (zeta congruent with approximately 0 mV), and effectively transfect cell cultures without notable cytotoxicity. The use of artificial viral vectors thus allows a new (nonamine/noncationic/nonpolymeric) access to gene delivery, a potential but still tough subject which has been studied extensively over the last 15 years by using viral or amine-based cationic vectors. The remarkable adhesion-manipulation ability of saccharide clusters also provides a strategy of bottom-up construction of nanometric or mesoscopic sizes.