What is Onbola?
What is Onbola?
Blog Article
BolA is a gene induced during stationary phase and under stress conditions in E. coli. Its overexpression makes cells spherical and it is known as a regulator of cellular processes including membrane permeability, motility and biofilm formation.
Unlike traditional amphiphilic molecules with a single polar head and long tail, bola-amphiphiles have two hydrophilic heads resulting in superior water solubility. These properties make bola-peptides ideal for applications in drug delivery and self-assembling materials.
1. Biocompatibility
A medical device’s biocompatibility is a key factor in its overall safety and efficacy. It requires careful testing to ensure that the device is safe for human contact and doesn’t cause any irritation or toxicity. To do this, a BEP is designed that outlines the devices testing strategy based on its intended use and duration of body contact.
Inspired by bola-type amphiphiles, we have developed peptide dipeptides with a bola structure for self-assembling into hydrogels toward localized drug delivery and in situ prodrug conversion. The resulting hydrogels show good thixotropy and recovery behaviors, inhibit nontargeted leakage, and enhance the in situ conversion of a photodynamic prodrug for effective tumor ablation. They also exhibit strong antimicrobial activity. Hence, these results suggest that the rationally designed bola-dipeptides are suitable as building blocks for designing injectable vesicular carriers for targeted and sustained drug release.
2. Self-assembly
Self-assembly is important in biology, and chemists have studied its processes for years. It is also the route to a range of structures with regular structure, from molecular crystals to liquid crystals and semicrystalline or phase-separated polymers.
To be considered self-assembly, a system must Onbola spontaneously organize components into an ordered state by interactions that are stronger than the forces tending to disrupt them. This requires that the components either be separate or linked, but not both, and that the system approach equilibrium as it assembles.
Molecular chemistry has focused on self-assembly with components at the molecular scale. However, as materials science and technology move toward nanometer- and micrometer-scale components, it is necessary to understand self-assembly of systems larger than molecules. The process is called dynamic self-assembly.
4. Water solubility
The solubility of a substance in a solvent is usually defined as the quantity of solute molecules (or ions) that can be dissolved in a given volume of solvent. In liquids, the solubility depends on the composition of the solvent and on the intermolecular forces and the entropy change that occur during the dissolution process.
Most inorganic salts and organic molecules dissolve in polar solvents through the formation of ionic bonds. The solubility of these species is generally not altered during this dissolution process, but some substances, such as metal oxides and some organic acids, undergo irreversible chemical transformations in aqueous solutions to form several different species that are not recoverable upon evaporation of the solvent.
In addition, some compounds experience a dramatic increase in their water solubility due to the formation of coordination complexes with coordinating anions in the solvent. In such cases, the solubility may be measured using a different system, such as simulated intestinal fluid. Report this page