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Generally, protein-based vaccines are available in liquid form and are highly susceptible to instability under elevated temperature changes including freezing conditions. There is a need to create a convenient formulation of protein/peptides that can be stored at ambient conditions without loss of activity or production of adverse effects. The efficiency of naturally occurring biocompatible polymer dextran in improving the shelf-life and biological activity of a highly thermally unstable plague vaccine candidate protein called Low Calcium Response V antigen (LcrV), which can be stored at room temperature (30 ± 2 °C), has been evaluated. To determine the preferential interactions with molecular-level insight into solvent–protein interactions, analytical techniques such asspectroscopy, particle size distribution, gel electrophoresis, microscopy, and thermal analysis have been performed along with the evaluation of humoral immune response, invivo. The analytical methods demonstrate the structural stability of the LcrV protein by expressing its interaction with the excipients in the formulation. The invivo studies elicited the biological activity of the formulated antigen with a significantly higher humoral immune response (p-value = 0.047) when compared to the native, adjuvanted antigen. We propose dextran as a potential biopolymer with its co-excipient sodium chloride (NaCl) to provide protein compactness, i.e., prevent protein unfolding by molecular crowding or masking mechanism using preferential hydrophobic interaction for up to three weeks at room temperature (30 ± 2 °C).

Acyclovir (ACV) is a promising candidate for drug repurposing because of its potential to provide an effective treatment for viral infections and non-viral diseases, such as cancer, for which limited treatment options exist. However, its poor physicochemical properties limit its application. This study aimed to formulate and evaluate an ACV-loaded red clay nanodrug delivery system exhibiting an effective cytotoxicity. The study focused on the preparation of a complex between ACV and red clay (RC) using sucrose stearate (SS) (nanocomplex F1) as an immediate-release drug-delivery system for melanoma treatment. The synthesized nanocomplex, which had nanosized dimensions, a negative zeta potential and the drug release of approximately 85% after 3 h, was found to be promising. Characterization techniques, including FT-IR, XRD and DSC-TGA, confirmed the effective encapsulation of ACV within the nanocomplex and its stability due to intercalation. Cytotoxicity experiments conducted on melanoma cancer cell lines SK-MEL-3 revealed that the ACV release from the nanocomplex formulation F1 effectively inhibited the growth of melanoma cancer cells, with an IC50 of 25 ± 0.09 µg/mL. Additionally, ACV demonstrated a significant cytotoxicity at approximately 20 µg/mL in the melanoma cancer cell line, indicating its potential repurposing for skin cancer treatment. Based on these findings, it can be suggested that the RC-SS complex could be an effective drug delivery carrier for localized cancer therapy. Furthermore, the results of an in silico study suggested the addition of chitosan to the formulation for a more effective drug delivery. Energy and interaction analyses using various modules in a material studio demonstrated the high stability of the composite comprising red clay, sucrose stearate, chitosan and ACV. Thus, it could be concluded that the utilization of the red clay-based drug delivery system is a promising strategy to improve the effectiveness of targeted cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]