• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.496-507
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• 2018

Immunization has been performed for centuries and is generally accepted as a sustainable method of controlling bacteria, viruses, and mediated and infectious diseases. Despite many studies having been performed on animal subjects to demonstrate the importance of toxin immunity, the use of toxoid vaccines in humans and animals has been limited for a long time. Recently, the development of the toxoid antigen delivery system has been facilitated using novel nano-medicinal technology. The micro/nano-carrier has been used to improve vaccination coverage as well as reduce vaccine costs. A micro/nano-carrier is a micro/nano-sized material that delivers immune cargo, including recombinant or peptide toxoid antigens. These toxoid antigens are either encapsulated in the interior or displayed on the surface of micro/nano-carriers as a way to protect them from the cellular machinery. In particular, the combination of toxoid antigens and micro/nano-carriers can induce phagocytosis through the specific interactions between GCs and macrophages; thus, the toxoid antigens can be delivered easily into the macrophages. This paper reviews recent achievements of micro/nano-carriers in the field of vaccine delivery systems such as microbial ghost cells (GCs, Bacterial ghost cells and Yeast ghost cells), gene-manipulated outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) and biocompatible, polymer-based nanoparticles (NPs, NP-Carrier and NP-Cage). Finally, this review shows various aspects in terms of the hosts' immune responses.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.524-536
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• 1994

Chitosan is known to be a good biocompatible natural polymer. Polyethyleneglycol monomethacrylates(PEGM) were grafted onto chitosan and their reaction conditions and properties of the graft polymers obtained were estimated. Using ceric ammonium nitrate(CAN) as the initiator, the optimum condition for graft polymerization was determined amount of the initiator and monomer concentrations and reaction time. Grafting yields such as total conversion, the percentage of grafting and the efficiency of grafting were calculated and examined the optimum reaction condition for high grafting yields. The percentage of grafting and total conversion were maximum at condition that the concentration of initiator was $4{\sim}5{\times}10^{-3}M$, the concentration of monomer was 0.5~0.6M, the reaction time was 2~3 hours and the reaction temperature was about $40^{\circ}C$. Thermal characteristics, solubility for chitosan solvents and inherent viscosity of synthesized graft copolymers were investigated. In high initiator concentration, characteristics of chitosan were greatly diminshed. In case of inherent viscosities, chitosan-g-PE-90 was 2.81 dl/g, chitosan-g-PE-200, 3.01dl/g and chitosan-g-PE-350, 4.93dl/g. And a tendency of viscosity increase depending on the length of ethylene oxide residue was confirmed. Degree of swelling, tensile strength, elongation of membrane prepared from graft copolymers were determined. Properties of graft copolymers were affected by percentage of grafting and length of ethylene oxides residue in polyethylene glycol monomethacrylates. Tensile strength, elongation and degree of swelling of graft copolymers were remarkably improved than chitosan. As percentage of grafting increased, the amount of drug permeation was also increased.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.255-259
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• 2006

The biodegradable hyaluronic acid(HA) membranes cross-linked with lactide using the crosslinking agent, 1-ethyl-3(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide(EDC) were prepared as a potential biocompatible material for tissue engineering. HA membranes having different mechanical properties were synthesised by varying degree of the mole ratio of lactide to HA, EDC concentration, and crosslinking temperature. HA membranes were degradable in water solution and the degradation became slower with the increasing mole ratio of lactide to HA. HA membranes were sterilized using ethylene oxide gas and extracted with cell culture medium for 24 h at $37^{\circ}C$ and 200 rpm. Cytotoxicity of the extract was tested using NIH/3T3 mouse embryo fibroblast as a model cell. Growth inhibition was not observed in the extracts of HA membranes with the mole ratios of lactide to HA, 5 or 10, and 10% EDC concentration, however 11% of growth inhibition was observed in the extract with the mole ratio of 13. Growth inhibition was not observed in the extracts of HA membranes prepared with 5% EDC or 10% EDC and the mole ratio of lactide to HA, 10, however 12% of growth inhibition was observed in the extract with 20% EDC. Cytotoxicity was not observed in the extracts of HA membranes prepared at varying crosslinking temperatures, $15^{\circ}C,\;25^{\circ}C,\;and\;28^{\circ}C$ with the mole ratio of lactide to HA, 10 and 10% EDC.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.475-479
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• 2011

Chitosan is a natural polymer that has many physicochemical(polycationic, reactive OH and $NH_2$ groups) and biological(bioactive, biocompatible, and biodegradable) properties. In this study, chitosan nanoparticles were prepared using poly-${\gamma}$-glutamic acid(${\gamma}$-PGA) as gelling agent. Nanoparticles were formed by ionic interaction between carboxylic groups in ${\gamma}$-PGA and amino groups in chitosan. Chitosan(0.1~1 g) was dissolved in 100 ml of acetic acid (1% v/v) at room temperature and stirred overnight to ensure a complete solubility. An amount of 0.1 g of ${\gamma}$-PGA was dissolved in 90 ml of distilled water at room temperature. Chitosan solution was dropped through needle into beaker containing ${\gamma}$-PGA solution under gentle stirring at room temperature. The average particle sizes were in the range of 80~300 nm. The prepared chitosan/${\gamma}$-PGA nanoparticles were used to examine their removal of several heavy metal ions($Cd^{2+}$, $Pb^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, and $Ni^{2+}$) as adsorbents in aqueous solution. The heavy metal removal capacity of the nanoparticles was in the order of $Cu^{2+}$ > $Pb^{2+}$ > $Cd^{2+}$ > $Ni^{2+}$ > $Zn^{2+}$.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 2008

Peroral administration is the most convenient one for the administration of pharmaceutically active compounds. Most of poorly water-soluble drugs administered via the oral route, however, remain poorly available due to their precipitation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and low permeability through intestinal mucosa. In this study, one of drug delivery carriers, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) were designed in order to reduce side effects and improve solubility and stability in GI tract of the poorly water soluble drugs. However, plain LNPs are generally unstable in the GI tract and susceptible to the action of acids, bile salts and enzymes. Accordingly, the surface of LNPs was modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) for the purpose of improving solubility and GI stability of paclitaxel (PTX) in vitro. PEG-modified LNPs containing PTX was prepared by spontaneous emulsification and solvent evaporation (SESE) method and characterized for mean particle diameter, entrapping efficiency, zeta potential value and in vitro GI stability. Mean particle diameter and zeta potential value of PEG-modified LNP containing PTX showed approximately 86.9 nm and -22.9 mV, respectively. PTX entrapping efficiency was about 70.5% determined by UV/VIS spectrophotometer. Futhermore, change of particle diameter of PTX-loaded PEG-LNPs in simulated GI fluids and bile fluid was evaluated as a criteria of GI stability. Particle diameter of PTX-loaded PEG-LNPs were preserved under 200 nm for 6 hrs in simulated GI fluids and bile fluid at $37^{\circ}C$ when DSPE-mPEG2000 was added to formulation of LNPs above 4 mole ratio. As a result, PEG-modified LNPs improved stability of plain LNPs that would aggregate in simulated GI fluids and bile solution. These results indicate that LNPs modified with biocompatible and nontoxic polymer such as PEG might be useful for enhancement of GI stability of poorly water-soluble drugs and they might affect PTX absorption affirmatively in gastrointestinal mucosa.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.285-290
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• 2023

Poly-lactic acid (PLA) is the most promising polymer in additive manufacturing as an alternative to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Since it is produced from renewable resources such as corn starch and sugar beets, it is also biocompatible and biodegradable. However, PLA has a couple of issues that limit its use. First, it has a comparatively low glass transition temperature of around 60 ℃, such that it exhibits low thermal resistance. Second, PLA has low impact strength because it is brittle. Due to these problems, scientists have found methods to improve the crystallinity and ductility of PLA. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is one of the most studied plasticizers for PLA to give it chain mobility. However, the blend of PLA and PEG becomes unstable, and phase separation occurs even at room temperature as PEG is self-crystallized. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the optimal mixing ratio of PLA-PEG at the molecular scale. In this study, molecular dynamics will be conducted with various ratios of L-type PLA (PLLA) or DL-type PLA-PEG (PDLA-PEG) systems by using BIOVIA Materials Studio.