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The enzyme-mediated grafting of tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) onto chitosan and further crosslinking to agave inulin (agavin) has been successfully achieved in a mild and non-toxic two-step route. The resulting products were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Infra-red spectroscopies to assess the molecular structure. The study of acute oral toxicity in mice revealed no adverse short-term effects of consumption in the synthesized materials with non-toxicity evidence until 2000 mg/kg through an oral acute administration. Importantly, this study proves that the compound maintains the radical scavenging capacity of the phenolic antioxidant upon ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assays with a measured half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) for the best case of 1.54 g/L based on inhibition of 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid diammonium salt (ABTS). Additionally, the novel compound presented high prebiotic activities as ascertained in the presence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB)., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Casiopeínas are a new generation of anticancer drugs that have shown great in vitro and in vivo antineoplastic activities. Information about interaction drug-excipient, for developing a based-nanoparticle drug delivery system, has not been investigated yet. In order to elucidate if chitosan (CS) modifies the copper complex due to its interaction with Cu(2+) ion, different studies in aqueous media between CS and Casiopeina III-ia (Cas III-ia) were carried out. CS-Cas III-ia mixtures were characterized by viscosity curves, UV-vis, EPR, and in vivo activity against HeLa cell line. Rheological behavior showed a decrease of viscosity when the drug was present due to diminished electrostatic interactions of charged amine group. UV-vis results illustrate that Cas III-ia is not stable at low pH as a result of interaction with acetic acid. However, when chitosan is present at the acidic solution Cas III-ia is stable. These results are supported by EPR studies. Finally, activity of the drug against HeLa cell line was not modified. Therefore, the present work presents evidence that there is no breaking of copper complex due to interaction between CS and Cas III-ia in acidic media. In addition, Cas III-ia maintains both its stability and effectiveness against cancer cell line., (2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)