Soysome: A Surfactant-Free, Fully Biobased, Self-Assembled Platform for Nanoscale Drug Delivery Applications

Abstract

A new class of biobased nanocarriers—Soysomes—have been discovered and investigated. These nanocarriers are derived from a synthetically accessible, scalable macromolecule, methoxylated sucrose soyate polyol (MSSP), derived from chemical building blocks obtained from soybean oil and sucrose. We observed for the first time that MSSP, when dissolved in an organic solvent of different polarity and slowly added to an aqueous phase at a predetermined rate under ‘nanoprecipitation’ conditions, will form a stable, self-assembled structure with a size range of 100-200 nm depending on the polarity difference between the precipitating solvent-pairs. Without the aid of poly (ethylene glycol) or of any surfactants, these Soysomes were found to be stable in water for an extended period and can withstand the destabilizing effect of time, temperature and pH. We also found that Soysomes were able to encapsulate and release hydrophobic bioactive compound, such as curcumin. Both MSSP and their self-assembled structures were highly biocompatible, and did not trigger cellular toxicity to mammalian cell lines. Our experiments showed that such 100% biobased, non-cytotoxic material as MSSP and related class of products have the potential for use towards the sustainable manufacturing of drug nanocarriers for biomedical applications.