화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.569, 378-385, 2020
Water-in-oil microcompartments for the study of biomimetic drug metabolism
Microcompartments in the form of water-in-oil droplets have been utilized to construct artificial cells and simulate human body environment. However, the performance of subcellular structure involved metabolism in emulsion droplets has not been explored, and the underlying mechanism is still being elucidated. In this work, drug metabolism is presented on the basis of great amounts of microcompartments formed of picoliter-volume droplets with different radius (R), using a commercial four-way valve as a droplet generator. A model substrate, phenacetin, and its metabolite, paracetamol, are quantitatively analyzed by liquid-chromatography (LC) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), and the reaction kinetics is characterized. In microdroplets of varying size (R = 18, 27, 42, and 51 mu m, respectively), both conversion ratio and reaction rate constant of the metabolism are influenced in different degree. For instance, the substrate conversion ratio after 60 min of incubation in R = 27 mu m droplets improves from 15% to 42%, and the reaction rate constant improves nearly five-fold, compared to that in bulk phase. The influence of microcompartment size on metabolism rate is further explored by simulation using a diffusion-reaction model. The droplet-based strategy is rapid, accurate and cost-efficient, fitting especially into biomimetic metabolism studies. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.