MANUFACTURING OF ELECTROSPRAYED NANOPARTICLES USING PHB PRODUCED BY HALOMONAS TITANICAE KHS3

INGRID E. REDERSDORFF; CORTEZ TORNELLO, PABLO R.; ABRAHAM, GUSTAVO A.; M KARINA HERRERA SEITZ

Congreso; XVIII Reunión Anual de Samige Sociedad Argentina de Microbiologia General; 2023

IntroductionBioplastics have emerged as an alternative for petroleum derived plastics mainly due to their fast biodegradability into non-toxic products. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolymers accumulated by a diversity of bacterial strains as carbon and energy reserve when grown under unbalanced nutritional conditions. Among the wide spectrum of applications for these biopolymers, the generation of nano and microparticles have drawn attention. PHAs nanoparticles showed a typical high surface to volume ratio that make them interesting for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications..Materials and methodsHalomonas titanicae KHS3 (Ht) was isolated from the seawater of Mar del Plata harbor due to its capacity to thrive on hydrocarbons and chemotactically respond to these substrates. We have previously described that H. titanicae accumulates PHAs when grown on different carbon sources including glucose, glycerol and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. In this study, Ht was cultivated using 3% glycerol as the carbon source, and the accumulated PHA was extracted using sodium hypochlorite. The identity of the accumulated polymer was determined by 1H-NMR analysis. Since the potential applications of polymers are strongly influenced by their physicochemical properties, a comprehensive physicochemical characterization was a crucial first step in evaluating the potential of HtPHB for nanoparticle generation. Additionally, the polymer was dissolved in glacial acetic acid, a nontoxic solvent, fand the resulting solutions were electrosprayed to produce nanoparticles.ResultsThe chemical structure determined by 1H-NMR analysis indicated that HtKHS3 polymer was polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) under our experimental conditions. Several methodologies were employed to complete the physicochemical characterization of the polymer accumulated by H.titanicae KHS3. The acetic acid solutions were suitable for PHB electrospraying and the resulting nanoparticles were properly characterized.ConclusionsThe PHB produced by H. titanicae demonstrated excellent potential as a material for the preparation of nanoparticles using the electrospraying technique. The characterization of these particles revealed a reproducible and homogeneous pattern, making them suitable for various applications as carriers for chemical compounds.