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Polymer and Crosslinker Content Influences Performance of Encapsulated Live Biotherapeutic Products

Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering volume 14, pages 487–499 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction

Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), or therapeutic microbes, are an emerging therapeutic modality for prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. Since LBPs are living, they are uniquely sensitive to external stresses (e.g., oxygen, acid) encountered during manufacturing, storage, and delivery. Here, we systematically evaluate how polymer and crosslinker concentration affects the performance of an encapsulated LBP toward developing a comprehensive framework for the characterization and optimization of LBP delivery systems.

Methods

We encapsulate a model LBP, Lactobacillus casei ATCC 393, in calcium chloride (CaCl2)-crosslinked alginate beads, and evaluate how alginate and CaCl2 concentrations influence LBP formulation performance, including: (i) encapsulation efficiency, (ii) shrinkage upon drying, (iii) survival upon lyophilization, (iv) acid resistance, (v) release, and (vi) metabolite secretion. Approaches from microbiology (e.g., colony forming unit enumeration), materials science (e.g., scanning electron microscopy), and pharmaceutical sciences (e.g., release assays) are employed.

Results

LBP-encapsulating alginate beads were systematically evaluated as a function of alginate and CaCl2 concentrations. Specifically: (i) encapsulation efficiency of all formulations was >50%, (ii) all alginate beads shrunk (after lyophilization) and recovered (after rehydration) similarly, (iii) at 10% alginate concentration, lower CaCl2 concentration decreased survival upon lyophilization, (iv) 10% alginate improved acid resistance, (v) sustained release was enabled by increasing alginate and CaCl2 concentrations, and (vi) encapsulation did not impair secretion of l-lactate as compared to free LBP.

Conclusions

This research demonstrates that polymer content and crosslinking extent modulate the performance of polymer-based LBP delivery systems, motivating research into the optimization of material properties for LBP delivery systems.

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Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R35GM137898. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Conflict of interest

KQ., Y.H., and A.C.A. declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article. No human studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, United States

    Kunyu Qiu, Yirui Huang & Aaron C. Anselmo

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Dr. Aaron C. Anselmo is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Anselmo’s research program focuses on developing delivery systems for live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) (e.g., therapeutic microbes) to improve their colonization, control interactions with the host, and optimize the pharmacokinetic profile of their metabolites or secreted therapeutics. Dr. Anselmo has co-authored over 45 papers in journals such as Science Translational Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology, Science, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Biomedical Engineering, PNAS, Advanced Materials, and ACS Nano. Dr. Anselmo has recently been recognized with awards such as the AIChE 35 Under 35 award, Pharmaceutics Young Investigator Award, and the Young Innovator Award in Nanobiotechnology. Dr. Anselmo’s research is supported by multiple grants from the NIH, including an NIH NIGMS R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early Stage Investigators. Dr. Anselmo completed his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his Ph.D. in chemical engineering as an NSF GRFP Fellow at the University of California at Santa Barbara working with Professor Samir Mitragotri, and his postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with Professor Robert Langer.

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This article is part of the 2021 CMBE Young Innovators special issue.

Associate Editor Stephanie Michelle Willerth oversaw the review of this article.

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Qiu, K., Huang, Y. & Anselmo, A.C. Polymer and Crosslinker Content Influences Performance of Encapsulated Live Biotherapeutic Products. Cel. Mol. Bioeng. 14, 487–499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-021-00674-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-021-00674-z

Keywords

  • Drug delivery
  • Polymer encapsulation
  • Probiotics
  • Alginate
  • Live biotherapeutic products