“AD HOC” MODIFIED CLAYS FOR BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Nowadays, the scientific community has to face with cogent problems strictly linked to the improvement of quality of live. Among the different tasks to achieve the prefixed objective the focus has been put on the drug administration, i.e., attention has been paid to propose an appropriate solution to improve the performance of a drug delivery system and to eliminate both the side effect and drawbacks. With the aim to achieve the design, synthesis, and characterization of versatile systems, with peculiar characteristics, based on clays and clays modified with a biocompatible surfactant, able to adsorb and release organic substances of pharmaceutical interest the present PhD thesis has been undertaken. This way, the obtained results, which we have insert in the wide research project “Design, synthesis, characterization of nano-hybrid clay/biocompatible-surfactant for biotechnological applications” obtaining a complete picture on the exploitation of new tailor made hybrid materials to be used in the drug delivery system. The new hybrid inorganic/organic material ought to possess several advantages, e.g., it has to be able to 1) increase the solubility of the drug and/or hamper the drug premature degradation; 2) slowly direct the release directly to the site of action avoiding the undesirable systemic action. These results imply not only a reduction in the dose and frequency of administration of the drug but also the side effects and the toxicity along with the drugs drawbacks are almost eliminated. During the first year of my PhD program, the attention has been focused on the study of the interaction of a hydrophilic antibiotic, metronidazole, with different clays and organoclays. During the second year, the attention has been paid to two drugs partially soluble in water, namely, Vitamin A Acetate and Cinnamic acid and their ability to interact with different solid adsorbent has been established. During the third year, the Nile Red has been chosen as model drug to study the releasing capability of clays and organoclays to deliver the sparingly water-soluble drug.The data gathered in these three years have demonstrated that the clays are effectively highly versatile systems that can be used for improve the therapeutic effect of different drugs.