Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan.
Institute of Thermal Separation Processes, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 28;16(4):e0247633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247633. eCollection 2021.
The present study evaluates the effect of calcium alginate aerogel as a potential drug carrier, on the liver and kidney functions, and on the gut microbiota of Wistar rats. The studied alginate aerogel was prepared in the form of nanoparticles using the jet cutting technique, and they were characterized in terms of specific surface areas, outer morphology and particle size distribution. For the in vivo study, calcium alginate aerogel was administered orally, and liver and kidney functions were tested for one week and for four weeks in two distinct studies. During the short-term in vivo study, feces samples were collected for bacterial DNA extraction followed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing analyses to detect changes in gut microbiota. Results showed that the prepared alginate aerogel has an average BET-specific surface area of around 540 m2/g, with a pore volume of 7.4 cc/g, and pore width of 30-50 nm. The in vivo study revealed that the levels of the studied kidney and liver enzymes didn't exceed the highest level of the normal range. The study of gut microbiota showed different patterns; certain groups of bacteria, such as Clostridia and Bacteriodia, increased during the aerogels regime and continued to increase after the aerogel was stopped. While other groups such as Erysipelotrichia, and Candidatus saccharibacteria increased during aerogels treatment, and then decreased again after one month. Members of the Bacilli class showed a unique trend, that is, after being the most abundant group (63%) at time 0, their relative abundance decreased dramatically until it reached < 5%; which was the case even after stopping the aerogel treatment.
本研究评估了海藻酸钠气凝胶作为一种潜在药物载体，对 Wistar 大鼠的肝肾功能和肠道微生物群的影响。所研究的海藻酸钠气凝胶采用射流切割技术制成纳米颗粒，并在比表面积、外形貌和粒径分布方面进行了表征。在体内研究中，海藻酸钠气凝胶经口服给药，在两项不同的研究中分别进行了一周和四周的肝肾功能测试。在短期的体内研究中，收集粪便样本进行细菌 DNA 提取，然后进行 16S rRNA 基因测序分析，以检测肠道微生物群的变化。结果表明，所制备的海藻酸钠气凝胶的 BET 比表面积平均约为 540m2/g，孔体积为 7.4cc/g，孔径为 30-50nm。体内研究表明，所研究的肾脏和肝脏酶的水平没有超过正常范围的最高水平。对肠道微生物群的研究显示出不同的模式；某些细菌群，如梭菌和拟杆菌，在气凝胶治疗期间增加，并在气凝胶停止后继续增加。而其他细菌群，如真杆菌和 Candidatus saccharibacteria，在气凝胶治疗期间增加，然后在一个月后再次减少。芽孢杆菌纲的成员表现出独特的趋势，即在时间 0 时是最丰富的群体（63%），其相对丰度急剧下降，直到低于 5%；即使在停止气凝胶治疗后也是如此。
