Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have become a hot topic
in many branches
of science due to their remarkable properties. They have been studied
in a wide variety of applications. In particular, choline chloride
(ChCl)-based DESs are one of the most commonly used representatives
of these fluids. Nevertheless, in order to apply DESs in some fields,
it is essential to guarantee their stability, reusability, and biocompatibility.
In this context, the long-term stability of three ChCl-based DESs
formed using glucose, malonic acid, and urea as hydrogen bond donors
was investigated. Furthermore, the possible formation of toxic byproducts
during long-term heating was evaluated for the first time, and toxicological
studies using three bacterial strains (Escherichia
coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus) were performed.
ChCl:urea DES revealed a high long-term thermal stability and was
also found to be less toxic to the bacteria and thus can be considered
as green solvent. ChCl:glucose DES started to decompose as a result
of possible caramelization at 100 °C, and decomposition was further
promoted at more elevated temperatures. Degradation of this DES did
not affect greatly the toxicity toward bacteria, and low antibacterial
properties were observed. The applicability of ChCl:malonic DES is
not recommended as this DES was shown to be thermally unstable due
to esterification and decomposition of malonic acid into acetic acid
and carbon dioxide. Moreover, high toxicity of this DES in comparison
to other DESs assayed in this study was reported.
Due to their unique properties, virus‐like particles (VLPs) have been portrayed as a promising high‐value biopharmaceutical in VLP‐based vaccination and cancer therapy. Nevertheless, due to limited physical and economical capabilities of the current downstream processing of VLPs, their production is still difficult and seen as a major problem that needs to be tackled. In this work, high‐throughput screening on a liquid handling station (LHS) has been implemented for efficient selection of adequate polymer‐salt aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) for extraction and purification of enveloped Hepatitis C virus pseudoparticles (HCVpp). The effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecular weight and salt type (citrate, sulfate, and phosphate) was first evaluated. Furthermore, to optimize extraction parameters, the effect of pH and tie‐line lengths (TLL) was also addressed. For the most promising ABS and extraction conditions, the addition of ten ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants was investigated. Insights on the chemical features of ILs that impact HCV‐VLPs partitioning are highlighted. Finally, the potential of studied ABS containing ILs as adjuvants in the extraction and purification of VLPs from cell culture supernatants was addressed. The 100% extraction efficiency of VLPs in the PEG‐rich phase was achieved, and VLP purity was increased compared to the system without IL. In conclusion, these promising results show that ILs can be very effective in modulating the phase properties of polymer‐salt ABS, achieving high HCV‐VLP purification.
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