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Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficit worldwide. The goal of this work was to obtain iron-pectin beads by ionic gelation and evaluate their physiological behavior to support their potential application in the food industry. The beads were firstly analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy, and then physical-chemically characterized by performing swelling, thermogravimetric, porosimetry, Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence analyses, as well as by determining the particle size. Then, physiological assays were carried out by exposing the beads to simulated gastric and intestinal environments, and determining the iron absorption and transepithelial transport into Caco-2/TC7 cells. Iron-pectin beads were spherical (diameter 1-2 mm), with high density (1.29 g/mL) and porosity (93.28%) at low pressure, indicating their high permeability even when exposed to low pressure. Swelling in simulated intestinal medium (pH 8) was higher than in simulated gastric medium. The source of iron [FeSO 4 (control) or iron-pectin beads] did not have any significant effect on the mineral absorption. Regarding transport, the iron added to the apical pole of Caco-2/TC7 monolayers was recovered in the basal compartment, and this was proportional with the exposure time. After 4 h of incubation, the transport of iron arising from the beads was significantly higher than that of the iron from the control (FeSO 4 ). For this reason, iron-pectin beads appear as an interesting system to overcome the low efficiency of iron transport, being a potential strategy to enrich food products with iron, without altering the sensory properties., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Liposomes are exceptional carriers for therapeutic drug delivery. However, they generally suffer from poor cell penetration, low half-life in bloodstream and loss of functionality during storage. To overcome these problems some strategies can be applied, such as functionalization with polymers and the use of protective molecules during dehydration processes. This work reports a complete study about the stability, including freeze-drying in the presence of trehalose, storage and internalization into HEp-2 cells, of stable formulations of pH sensitive polymer-liposome complexes (PLC) composed of soybean lecithin and crosslinked/non-crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) with a cholesterol end-group (CHO-PAA). The results showed that the average hydrodynamic particle size of the complexes persisted unaffected for approximately 75 days after freeze-drying in the presence of 10% w/v trehalose. The efficiency of calcein encapsulation and release profiles in physiologic conditions exhibited no significant alterations when stored for 0 and 1 month, and for 2 and 3 months of storage the calcein release increased with time. The stored complexes were efficiently uptaken into HEp-2-cells, as determined by confocal microscopy. In all cases, the percentage of viable cells was above 90%, as determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, indicating no potential toxicity. Finally, transepithelial transport assays demonstrated that both fresh and 2 months-stored complexes could transport their calcein content through HEp-2 monolayers over time., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The development of polymer-liposome complexes (PLCs), in particular for biomedical applications, has grown significantly in the last decades. The importance of these studies comes from the emerging need in finding intelligent controlled release systems, more predictable, effective and selective, for applications in several areas, such as treatment and/or diagnosis of cancer, neurological, dermatological, ophthalmic and orthopedic diseases, gene therapy, cosmetic treatments, and food engineering. This work reports the development and characterization of a pH sensitive system for controlled release based on PLCs. The selected hydrophilic polymer was poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with a cholesterol (CHO) end-group to improve the anchoring of the polymer into the lipid bilayer. The polymer was incorporated into liposomes formulated from soybean lecithin and stearylamine, with different stearylamine/phospholipid and polymer/phospholipid ratios (5, 10 and 20%). The developed PLCs were characterized in terms of particle size, polydispersity, zeta potential, release profiles, and encapsulation efficiency. Cell viability studies were performed to assess the cytotoxic potential of PLCs. The results showed that the liposomal formulation with 5% of stearylamine and 10% of polymer positively contribute to the stabilization of the complexes. Afterwards, the carboxylic acid groups of the polymer present at the surface of the liposomes were crosslinked and the same parameters analyzed. The crosslinked complexes showed to be more stable at physiologic conditions. In addition, the release profiles at different pHs (2-12) revealed that the obtained complexes released all their content at acidic conditions. In summary, the main accomplishments of this work are: (i) innovative synthesis of cholesterol-poly(acrylic acid) (CHO-PAA) by ATRP; (ii) stabilization of the liposomal formulation by incorporation of stearylamine and CHO-PAA; (iii) new approach for CHO-PAA crosslinking, resulting in more stable PLCs at physiological conditions; (iv) destabilization of PLCs upon slight changes of pH, showing their pH sensitivity; and (v) the PLCs do not exhibit cellular toxicity., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)