Blends of Carbohydrate Polymers for the Co-Microencapsulation of Bacillus clausii and Quercetin as Active Ingredients of a Functional Food.

A functional food based on blends of carbohydrate polymers and active ingredients was prepared by spray drying. Inulin (IN) and maltodextrin (MX) were used as carrying agents to co-microencapsulate quercetin as an antioxidant and Bacillus clausii (Bc) as a probiotic. Through a reduced design of experiments, eleven runs were conducted and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). The physical characterizations showed fine and non-aggregated powders, composed of pseudo-spherical particles with micrometric sizes. The observation of rod-like particles suggested that microorganisms were microencapsulated in these particles. The microstructure of the powders was amorphous, observing diffraction peaks attributed to the crystallization of the antioxidant. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the blends was above the room temperature, which may promote a higher stability during storage. The antioxidant activity (AA) values increased for the IN-MX blends, while the viability of the microorganisms increased with the addition of MX. By a surface response plot (SRP) the yield showed a major dependency with the drying temperature and then with the concentration of IN. The work contributes to the use of carbohydrate polymers blends, and to the co-microencapsulation of active ingredients.

Lipid­based nanoparticles for the therapeutic delivery of non­coding RNAs in breast cancer (Review).

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer with the highest morbidity and mortality rates in women worldwide. Recent efforts to improve the current antitumor therapies have led to the development of novel treatment approaches based on the delivery of therapeutic non­coding RNAs (ncRNAs) using nanotechnology. Treatment methods using lipid­based nanoparticles (LBNPs) have greatly improved the delivery efficiency of ncRNAs into tumor cells and tissues. This type of delivery approach has provided significant advantages, such as reduced therapeutic doses, lower cytotoxicity to normal cells and the ability to reverse resistance to chemotherapy. LBNPs have demonstrated the ability to deliver therapeutic ncRNAs, more specifically microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs); this has been reported modulate the expression levels of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes involved in several biological processes, including cell growth and proliferation, cell death, invasion and metastasis, thus impairing the malignant behavior of tumors. Therefore, ncRNA­based therapies combined with the LBNP delivery strategy, namely nanomiRNAs, may represent a promising antitumor strategy guaranteeing superior biocompatibility, higher biodegradability, lower immunogenicity and decreased toxicity to normal cells compared with other therapeutic approaches. The present review summarized the current knowledge of the application of LBNPs for delivering miRNAs and siRNAs in breast cancer cells and mouse models, in addition to discussing their promising antitumor effects.

Application of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (MDSC) in Food and Drug Industries.

Phase transition issues in the field of foods and drugs have significantly influenced these industries and consequently attracted the attention of scientists and engineers. The study of thermodynamic parameters such as the glass transition temperature (Tg), melting temperature (Tm), crystallization temperature (Tc), enthalpy (H), and heat capacity (Cp) may provide important information that can be used in the development of new products and improvement of those already in the market. The techniques most commonly employed for characterizing phase transitions are thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermomechanical analysis (TMA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Among these techniques, DSC is preferred because it allows the detection of transitions in a wide range of temperatures (-90 to 550 °C) and ease in the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the transitions. However, the standard DSC still presents some limitations that may reduce the accuracy and precision of measurements. The modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) has overcome some of these issues by employing sinusoidally modulated heating rates, which are used to determine the heat capacity. Another variant of the MDSC is the supercooling MDSC (SMDSC). SMDSC allows the detection of more complex thermal events such as solid-solid (Ts-s) transitions, liquid-liquid (Tl-l) transitions, and vitrification and devitrification temperatures (Tv and Tdv, respectively), which are typically found at the supercooling temperatures (Tco). The main advantage of MDSC relies on the accurate detection of complex transitions and the possibility of distinguishing reversible events (dependent on the heat capacity) from non-reversible events (dependent on kinetics).

Evaluation of the Spray Drying Conditions of Blueberry Juice-Maltodextrin on the Yield, Content, and Retention of Quercetin 3-d-Galactoside.

The influence of the processing conditions during the spray drying of mixtures of blueberry juice (BJ) and maltodextrin (MX) was determined quantitatively by the analysis of variance (ANOVA), and qualitatively by the surface response plots (SRP). The effect of two independent variables (inlet temperature, and MX concentration), and one categorical variable (type of MX), was determined on the yield (Y), content (Q), and retention (R) of the antioxidant quercetin 3-d-galactoside. From the ANOVA results, the concentration was the main variable affecting Y and Q, while temperature had a negligible effect, and the low molecular weight MXs exhibited a better response. The physicochemical characterization showed that the powder appearance and microstructure remained unaffected, but size and morphology of the particles varied with the processing conditions. This study established the optimal processing conditions for the spray drying of BJ-MX, and the application limits of the MXs based on the molecular weight distribution.