Alginate as a support ligand for enhanced colloidal liquid aphron immobilization of proteins and drug delivery

Research within the field of colloidal liquid aphrons (CLAs) for enzyme immobilization has often used ionic surfactants for the retention of enzymes. Although these charged interactions allow for enhanced immobilization, they can often lead to denaturation of enzyme activity, and even release of the protein. Sodium alginate has been used in drug delivery applications due to its low toxicity and charged interactions that allow for encapsulation. Hence, alginate systems can be used as an alternative to ionic surfactants in CLA immobilization. This paper presents, for the first time, the use of sodium alginate as potential ligand for enhanced CLA immobilization. The use of five model proteins; lysozyme, bovine serum albumin, ovalbumin, insulin, and alpha-chymotrypsin, of various pIs and hydrophobicities, showed the relevance of electrostatic interactions in promoting binding with sodium alginate when the pH < pI, with 100% immobilization attributed to alginate incorporated CLAs over general nonionic formulations. Furthermore, above their pI, >80% protein recovery was observed, with activity and conformation comparable to their native counterparts. Finally, the use of proteolysis showed that as the degree of ionic bonding increased between the protein and sodium alginate, the degree of protease resistance decreased due to conformational changes experienced during binding.