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Author Spotlight: Advancing Therapeutics with Biocompatible Sodium Alginate Hydrogel Microspheres
Published on: June 7, 2024
Structural characterization and formation mechanism of zein-propylene glycol alginate binary complex induced by
Cuixia Sun1, Shuai Chen1, Lei Dai1
1Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, Beijing Key Laboratory of Functional Food from Plant Resources, College of Food Science & Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, 100083, China.
Abstract:
Effect of calcium ions (Ca2+) on characteristics of zein-propylene glycol alginate (PGA) binary complex was studied in this work. Ca2+ induced the formation of zein aggregates with decreased fluorescence intensity and a significant α-helix loss of zein. Zein-PGA binary complex with Ca2+ showed the decreased dimension and the minimum size was observed at 50.0mM Ca2+. Ca2+ resulted in the formation of strong hydrogen bonds between zein and PGA, strengthened their hydrophobic interactions, and induced a new peak at the diffraction angle of 30° in the pattern of Zein-PGA binary complex. PGA fortified with Ca2+ exhibited an overall plane-like structure, also an interwoven flat profile appeared in Zein-PGA binary complex with Ca2+. Three potential mechanisms were proposed to explain the morphological changes of samples after Ca2+ addition: (i) particle-particle collision and aggregation of particles; (ii) chain-chain association and further cross-linking of associated chains; (iii) simultaneous cross-linking coupled with aggregation.
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