Dextran sulfate biotin is an interesting and very useful bioconjugate that transports drugs: the natural biopolymer dextran is teamed with the polyfunctional biotin molecule. Dextran is a glucose unit polysaccharide and. Dextran sulfate: sulfates carry negative charges and make dextran more easily water-soluble and therefore bio-functional. Biotin, on the other hand, is a very small molecule that sticks extremely closely, and very precisely, to avidin and streptavidin, proteins that stick very closely to biotin. Add biotin to dextran sulfate and you have a drug-delivered molecule that doesn't sacrifice the individual properties of each component, which comes in handy in drug delivery networks that demand fast, selective and precisely administered therapeutics.
Figure 1. Scanning electron micrograph of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) nanoparticles. (Madkhali OA, et al.; 2021)
This may be the greatest advantage of using dextran sulfate biotin to deliver drugs since we can take advantage of the biotin-streptavidin or biotin-avidin interaction to deliver specific drugs. This interaction is one of the strongest non-covalent binding affinities we know of and can be leveraged to deliver drugs precisely to cells or tissues. For instance, biotin can be bound to therapeutic molecules or targeting molecules; streptavidin or avidin can be bound to a drug carrier or nanoparticle. Because biotin and avidin bind tightly together, the drug-bound carrier can be rapidly and securely attached to the target, so the agent can be delivered without off-target effects. It's especially helpful in cancer treatment, where you need to target the cells in the tumour with as little harm as possible to surrounding tissue. Because the biotin-avidin/streptavidin system is highly specific, drug reaches the target at the right place in order to increase the drug's therapeutic index and minimize side effects. Apart from its targeting, there are other crucial drug delivery properties of dextran sulfate biotin like better stability, solubility and biocompatibility. Since Dextran is a natural polysaccharide, it is biocompatible and biodegradable, so it can be safely used in the body without damaging immune cells. Dextran sulfated even further makes it more solubilised and stable and hence the perfect carrier for small molecules, proteins, peptides and nucleic acids. Not only does adding biotin optimize the conjugation rate, it also makes it possible to image the drug delivery system for diagnosing purposes using biotin-binding proteins. In addition, dextran sulfate biotin is so hydrophilic that the potential for aggregation is low and therefore the drug carrier is physiologically stable. Such stability is needed for controlled and prolonged release, especially important for chronic disease or treatments that demand continued exposure. Another advantage of dextran sulfate biotin as a drug carrier is that it can form multifunctional complexes for combination therapy. Perhaps the most significant problem in drug development today is how to cure a disease with a more than one etiology – cancer or autoimmune diseases – that often demands multiple agents. It is because of this that dextran sulfate biotin can link multiple molecules through biotin-avidin or biotin-streptavidin conjugations that combination therapy systems can be constructed. Chemotherapy drugs and immunomodulatory drugs, for example, can be mixed into the same carrier and delivered to the same site via the biotin-avidin system. The result is not only that the therapeutic activity of each agent is maximized but that it also minimizes administration since several agents can be applied simultaneously at the target site. Dextran sulfate biotin, in combination therapy, could also help break the drug resistance barrier that often plagues cancer and other chronic conditions.
It is also the fact that dextran sulfate biotin can be combined with other technologies for drug delivery, including nanoparticles, liposomes and micelles, which expand its application potential. This gives better drug encapsulation, and better delivery to targeted tissues. The dextran sulfate biotin conjugate can also be used in combination with other targeting ligands like antibodies, peptides or small molecules to further tailor the drug delivery system. All this makes dextran sulfate biotin an attractive candidate for applications across a wide spectrum of therapeutics, from gene therapy to vaccination and tissue engineering. The modifying the structure of the dextran sulfate biotin conjugate can be used to develop extremely specific delivery systems that address different diseases and patient groups. Apart from targeted, supervised delivery of medications, dextran sulfate biotin could be employed for diagnostics and imaging. The biotin-avidin interaction is so highly specific that dextran sulfate biotin could be employed as a scaffold for affixing imaging molecules, such as fluorescent or radiolabel, to carrier drugs. This can monitor the drug distribution, localization and release in real time in the body. For cancer therapy, for instance, scientists can monitor the tumour-associated uptake of the carrier drug and measure the effect of the treatment via non-invasive imaging. The drug-diagnostic duality in a single machine (theranostics) has the potential to change the therapeutic paradigm, providing more individualised, dynamic treatment plans. What's more, since dextran sulfate biotin is able to bind to other bioactive molecules, it could be used to construct vaccines. In conjugating antigens to biotinylated dextran sulfate, these systems will target the biotin-avidin association on specific immune cells that are alert to the immunomodulatory potential of the vaccine. This system's-controlled release and targeting allow the antigens to be precisely delivered to immune cells, enhancing the effectiveness and duration of the immune response. It has also been successful in creating vaccines for infectious disease, cancer immunotherapy and autoimmune diseases, which are targeted and less broadly distributed than older approaches to vaccine delivery.
Alternate Names:
Dextran Sulfate Biotin Conjugate
Biotin-Dextran Sulfate
Dextran Sulfate-Biotin Complex
Dextran Sulfate-Av-Bio
Biotinylated Dextran Sulfate
Dextran Sulfate-Bio Conjugate
Biotinylated Dextran Sulfate Polysaccharide
References:
1. Madkhali OA, et al.; Formulation and evaluation of injectable dextran sulfate sodium nanoparticles as a potent antibacterial agent. Sci Rep. 2021, 11(1):9914.
Formulation and evaluation of injectable dextran sulfate sodium nanoparticles as a potent antibacterial agent
Sci Rep.
Authors: Madkhali OA, Sivagurunathan Moni S, Sultan MH, Bukhary HA, Ghazwani M, Alhakamy NA, Meraya AM, Alshahrani S, Alqahtani SS, Bakkari MA, Alam MI, Elmobark ME.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop a novel nano antibacterial formulation of dextran sulfate sodium polymer. The dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) nanoparticles were formulated with gelation technique. The nanoparticles exhibited significant physicochemical and effective antibacterial properties, with zeta potential of - 35.2 mV, particle size of 69.3 z d nm, polydispersity index of 0.6, and percentage polydispersity of 77.8. The DSS nanoparticles were stable up to 102 °C. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed an endothermic peak at 165.77 °C in 12.46 min, while XRD analysis at 2θ depicted various peaks at 21.56°, 33.37°, 38.73°, 47.17°, 52.96°, and 58.42°, indicating discrete nanoparticle formation. Antibacterial studies showed that the DSS nanoparticles were effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of DSS nanoparticles for Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and Proteus vulgaris (P. vulgaris) were 150, 200, 250, 150, 200, 250, 250 μg/mL, respectively. The antibacterial effects of DSS nanoparticles were in the order E. coli (26 ± 1.2 mm) at 150 μg/mL > S. pyogenes (24.6 ± 0.8 mm) at 250 μg/mL > B. subtilis (23.5 ± 2 mm) at 150 μg/mL > K. pneumoniae (22 ± 2 mm) at 250 μg/mL > P. aeruginosa (21.8 ± 1 mm) at 200 μg/mL > S. aureus (20.8 ± 1 mm) at 200 μg/mL > P. vulgaris (20.5 ± 0.9 mm) at 250 μg/mL. These results demonstrate the antibacterial potency of DSS injectable nanoparticles.
Datasheet
