Spray dry method for encapsulation of biological moieties and chemicals in polymers cross-linked by multivalent ions for controlled release applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017333360-A1
Application number	US-201715615520-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 6, 2017
Priority date	Dec 23, 2011
Publication date	Nov 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Microencapsulation of bioactive and chemical cargo in a stable, cross-linked polymer matrix is presented that results in small particle sizes and is easily scaled-up for industrial applications. A formulation of a salt of an acid soluble multivalent ion, an acid neutralized with a volatile base and one or more monomers that cross-link in the presence of multivalent ions is atomized into droplets. Cross-linking is achieved upon atomization where the volatile base is vaporized resulting in a reduction of the pH of the formulation and the temporal release of multivalent ions from the salt that cross-link the monomers forming a capsule. The incorporation of additional polymers or hydrophobic compounds in the formulation allows control of hydration properties of the particles to control the release of the encapsulated compounds. The operational parameters can also be controlled to affect capsule properties such as particle-size and particle-size distribution.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method of cross-linking polymer molecules, comprising:
(a) mixing monomer molecules, at least one salt of an acid soluble multivalent ion and an acid neutralized with a volatile base; and (b) volatilizing said volatile base, thereby liberating said multivalent ions and initiating cross-linking of the monomer molecules.

2 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said monomer is selected from the group of monomers consisting of alginates, polygalacturonates, chitosan, collagen, latex, soy proteins and whey proteins.

3 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said multivalent ion is a divalent cation.

4 . A method as recited in claim 3 , wherein said divalent cation is selected from the group of cations consisting of barium (Ba 2+ ), calcium (Ca 2+ ), chromium (Cr 2+ ), copper (Cu 2+ ), iron (Fe 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ) and zinc (Zn 2+ ).

5 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said acid is an organic acid selected from the group of acids consisting of adipic acid, acrylic acid, glutaric acid, succinic acid, ascorbic acid, gallic acid and caffeic acid.

6 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said volatile base is selected from the group of volatile bases consisting of ammonia, methylamine, trimethylamine, ethylamine, diethylamine and triethylamine.

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Zicari Tina Jeoh
• Scher Herbert B
• Santa-Maria Monica C
• Strobel Scott

Classifications

• B01J13/046

  combined with gelification or coagulation · CPC title

• C08J2305/06

  Pectin; Derivatives thereof · CPC title

• C08J3/122

  Pulverisation by spraying · CPC title

• A61K38/385

  Serum albumin · CPC title

• A61K9/1694

  resulting in granules or microspheres of the matrix type containing more than 5% of excipient · CPC title