INTERACTION BETWEEN WHEY PROTEIN NANOPARTICLES AND FATTY ACIDS

The cytotoxicity of formulated nanoparticle complexes of different fatty acids (oleic, eliedic, Cis-vaccenic, Trans-vaccenic, and linolenic acids) in the presence or absence of whey protein isolate (WPI) was investigated in this study. Nanoparticle complexes formed with WPI was examined for surface tension, circular dichroism (CD), turbidity, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and Cytotoxic activity. Surface tension values were decreased with adding fatty acid to WPI. Cis-fatty acids such as oleic, cis-vaccenic and linolenic caused higher decrease in the surface tension of WPI nanoparticles than that of trans-fatty acids (eledic and trans-vaccenic acids). The tertiary structure of WPI was lost and changed from fold to unfold after binding with fatty acids. The changes in WPI structure would be correlated to exhibit a cytotoxic activity to tumor cells. The turbidity values for nanocomplexes of WPI/fatty acids were lower confirming higher ability in binding fatty acids. All nano complexes formed of WPI/fatty acids exhibited a cytotoxic ability as a lysis in erythrocytes. Nanocomplexes can be formed from WPI with good cytotoxic effect to tumer cells using cis-vaccenic and linolenic fatty acids comparable to oleic acid. It was a new interesting observation being that the nanocomplexes formed of WPI with fatty acids has a comparable cytotoxcisty to that of α-LA and β-lg and can be used in tumor therapy.
Keywords: Nanoparticles; Whey protein isolate; Fatty acids; Surface tension; Circular dichroism; Turbidity; Cytotoxicity.