The Influence of PH on the Scleroglucan and Scleroglucan/Borax Systems

Overview

Journal Molecules

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Mar 12

PMID 28282944

Citations 1

Authors

Claudia Mazzuca

Gianfranco Bocchinfuso

Antonio Palleschi

Paolo Conflitti

Mario Grassi

Chiara Di Meo

Franco Alhaique

Tommasina Coviello

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The effects that an increase of environmental pH has on the triple helix of scleroglucan (Sclg) and on the Sclg/borax hydrogel are reported. Rheological experiments show that the hydrogel is less sensitive to pH increase than Sclg alone, while at pH = 14 a dramatic viscosity decrease takes place for both systems. This effect is evidenced also by the reduced water uptake and anisotropic elongation detected, at pH = 14, by the swelling behaviour of tablets prepared with the Sclg/borax system. On the opposite, a different behaviour was observed with guar gum and locust bean gum tablets, tested as reference polysaccharides. The effect of pH on the structure of Sclg and Sclg/borax was investigated also by means of spectroscopic approaches based on the interaction between Congo red (CR) and the Sclg triple helix. Obtained results indicated that the CR absorbance maximum is shifted as a function of pH and by the presence of borax. Principal component analysis allowed very precise identification of the pH value at which the Sclg helix collapses. Molecular dynamics simulations of the Sclg/borax-CR complex indicated that, at physiological pH, only a few ordered configurations are populated, according to the induced circular dichroism (CD) spectrum evidence.

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