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Methodological Approaches for the Characterization of the Self-assembling Behaviour in the Pharmaceutical Field

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Part of the book series: Series in BioEngineering ((SERBIOENG))

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Abstract

Self-assembling is a thermodynamic process in which single components aggregate into large ordered structure as a function of temperature and concentration. Self-assembling has been longer exploited in the pharmaceutical field for the development of colloidal delivery systems for therapeutic, theranostic or preventive medicine purposes. In fact, the design of new polymeric or lipid self-assembling systems represents an advance in material science and nanomedicine, giving rise to a plenty of drug or functional substance carriers as polymeric or surfactants micelles, liposomes, vesicles and biomembranes. Recently, the growing interest in bioresponsive nanomaterials, able to respond to different stimuli in vivo (pH or temperature), has greatly influenced the architecture of these self-assembling systems, leading to the formulation of functionalized, coated, layered or multi-walled colloidal particles. This improvement has definitely made not effortless the chemical-physical characterization of the self-assembling process in the pharmaceutical field. The present chapter is aimed to review the common available techniques employed to characterize the self-assembling behaviour of drug delivery systems in a temperature or concentration dependent manner. A particular focus will be placed on the calorimetric techniques (as differential scanning calorimetry, DSC or isothermal titration calorimetry, ITC), but also on alternative methodologies as high-resolution ultrasonic spectroscopy (HR-US).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, University of Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, 62032, Camerino, MC, Italy

    Diego Romano Perinelli & Giulia Bonacucina

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  1. Diego Romano Perinelli
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  2. Giulia Bonacucina
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Correspondence to Giulia Bonacucina .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Costas Demetzos

  2. School of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Natassa Pippa

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Perinelli, D.R., Bonacucina, G. (2019). Methodological Approaches for the Characterization of the Self-assembling Behaviour in the Pharmaceutical Field. In: Demetzos, C., Pippa, N. (eds) Thermodynamics and Biophysics of Biomedical Nanosystems. Series in BioEngineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0989-2_2

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