Technology for Molecular Weight Reduction
Polysaccharides have many properties that make their hydrophilic structures give an increased probability in targeting tumors as well as their hydrophobic groups providing good carries for insoluble drugs. Polysaccharides can also be used to form conjugate vaccines. However, many polysaccharides starting molecular weight is too large to utilize these great properties.
Microfluidics technology can use high shear forces to achieve low molecular weight polysaccharides that show positive zeta potential and higher solubility at a neutral pH.
This makes it easier for purification, reduces viscosity, provides more terminal reactive sites, and more.
Use of a Microfluidizer® high-pressure homogenizer for mechanical sizing is superior to chemical methods of molecular weight reduction. Chemical processing can modify the polysaccharide chemical structure, often resulting in highly polydisperse polymers.
A Microfluidizer® processor reduces the molecular weight without altering the chemical structure of the polysaccharide or its attached groups.
Because Microfluidizer® technology exposes all the material to the same high shear conditions within the fixed-geometry Interaction Chamber™, the final product is very homogenous with low polydispersity.
When you’re ready to scale up processing, simply place additional micro channels in the chamber — this increases flow rate while maintaining the equivalent high shear processing obtained at smaller volumes.
Various studies have confirmed the superiority of the Microfluidizer® technology for molecular weight reduction. Advantages were confirmed in two pharmaceutical case studies for conjugated vaccines containing polysaccharides. The studies conclusively found that Microfluidizer® technology is effective in achieving the target weight of polysaccharides used as vaccine antigens, in some cases with a single pass. When used for conjugate vaccine development, the Microfluidizer® processor reduced the molecular weight and the viscosity, creating a more manageable and easily filterable product.
A lab-scale Microfluidizer® processor, particularly the LV-1 model, is ideally suited for development. This model handles very low volumes and offers a simple, controllable and reproducible method for determining optimum parameters for polymer molecular weight reduction. These parameters can then be used to directly scale up to pilot and/or production volumes.
Microfluidics International Corporation, the manufacturer of Microfluidizer® high shear fluid processors, is a leader in the design and production of laboratory and commercial processing equipment used in the production of micro- and nano-scale materials for pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical and diverse industries.
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