Adsorption of the rhNGF Protein on Polypropylene with Different Grades of Copolymerization
Paolo Canepa,
Claudio Canale,
Ornella Cavalleri,
Giovanni Marletta,
Grazia M. L. Messina,
Massimo Messori,
Rubina Novelli,
Simone Luca Mattioli,
Lucia Apparente,
Nicola Detta,
Tiziana Romeo,
Marcello Allegretti
Affiliations
Paolo Canepa
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
Claudio Canale
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
Ornella Cavalleri
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
Giovanni Marletta
Laboratory for Molecular Surface and Nanotechnology (LAMSUN), Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Catania and CSGI, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
Grazia M. L. Messina
Laboratory for Molecular Surface and Nanotechnology (LAMSUN), Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Catania and CSGI, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
Massimo Messori
Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Rubina Novelli
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Via Santa Lucia 6, 20122 Milano, Italy
Simone Luca Mattioli
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Via De Amicis 95, 80131 Napoli, Italy
Lucia Apparente
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Via De Amicis 95, 80131 Napoli, Italy
Nicola Detta
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Via De Amicis 95, 80131 Napoli, Italy
Tiziana Romeo
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Loc. Campo di Pile, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Marcello Allegretti
Research & Early Development, Dompè Farmaceutici S.p.A., Loc. Campo di Pile, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
The surface properties of drug containers should reduce the adsorption of the drug and avoid packaging surface/drug interactions, especially in the case of biologically-derived products. Here, we developed a multi-technique approach that combined Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Contact Angle (CA), Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), and X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the interactions of rhNGF on different pharma grade polymeric materials. Polypropylene (PP)/polyethylene (PE) copolymers and PP homopolymers, both as spin-coated films and injected molded samples, were evaluated for their degree of crystallinity and adsorption of protein. Our analyses showed that copolymers are characterized by a lower degree of crystallinity and lower roughness compared to PP homopolymers. In line with this, PP/PE copolymers also show higher contact angle values, indicating a lower surface wettability for the rhNGF solution on copolymers than PP homopolymers. Thus, we demonstrated that the chemical composition of the polymeric material and, in turn, its surface roughness determine the interaction with the protein and identified that copolymers may offer an advantage in terms of protein interaction/adsorption. The combined QCM-D and XPS data indicated that protein adsorption is a self-limiting process that passivates the surface after the deposition of roughly one molecular layer, preventing any further protein adsorption in the long term.
