Lubricant oils take significant part in current health and environmental considerations since they are an integral and indispensable component of modern technology. Antioxidants are probably the most important additives used in oils because oxidative deterioration plays a major role in oil degradation. Zeolite nanoparticles (NPs) have been proven as another option as green antioxidants in oil formulation. The anti-oxidative behavior of zeolite NPs is obvious; however, the phenomenon is still under investigation. Herein, a study of the effect of extra-framework cations stabilized on Linde Type L (LTL) zeolite NPs (ca. 20 nm) on inhibition of oxidation in palm oil-based lubricant oil is reported. Hydrophilic LTL zeolites with a Si/Al ratio of 3.2 containing four different inorganic cations (Li(+), Na(+), K(+), Ca(2+)) were applied. The oxidation of the lubricant oil was followed by visual observation, colorimetry, fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, (1)H NMR spectroscopy, total acid number (TAN), and rheology analyses. The effect of extra-framework cations to slow down the rate of oil oxidation and to control the viscosity of oil is demonstrated. The degradation rate of the lubricant oil samples is decreased considerably as the polarizability of cation is increased with the presence of zeolite NPs. More importantly, the microporous zeolite NPs have a great influence in halting the steps that lead to the polymerization of the oils and thus increasing the lifetime of oils.
The affinity of zeolite nanoparticles (diameter of 8-12 nm) possessing high surface area and high pore volume towards human plasma proteins has been investigated. The protein composition (corona) of zeolite nanoparticles has been shown to be more dependent on the plasma protein concentrations and the type of zeolites than zeolite nanoparticles concentration. The number of proteins present in the corona of zeolite nanoparticles at 100% plasma (in vivo state) is less than with 10% plasma exposure. This could be due to a competition between the proteins to occupy the corona of the zeolite nanoparticles. Moreover, a high selective adsorption for apolipoprotein C-III (APOC-III) and fibrinogen on the zeolite nanoparticles at high plasma concentration (100%) was observed. While the zeolite nanoparticles exposed to low plasma concentration (10%) exhibited a high selective adsorption for immunoglobulin gamma (i.e. IGHG1, IGHG2 and IGHG4) proteins. The zeolite nanoparticles can potentially be used for selectively capture of APOC-III in order to reduce the activation of lipoprotein lipase inhibition during hypertriglyceridemia treatment. The zeolite nanoparticles can be adapted to hemophilic patients (hemophilia A (F-VIII deficient) and hemophilia B (F-IX deficient)) with a risk of bleeding, and thus might be potentially used in combination with the existing therapy.
The efficiency of zeolite X nanocrystals (FAU-type framework structure) containing different extra-framework cations (Li(+), Na(+), K(+), and Ca(2+)) in slowing the thermal oxidation of palm oil is reported. The oxidation study of palm oil is conducted in the presence of zeolite nanocrystals (0.5 wt %) at 150 °C. Several characterization techniques such as visual analysis, colorimetry, rheometry, total acid number (TAN), FT-IR spectroscopy, (1)H NMR spectroscopy, and Karl Fischer analyses are applied to follow the oxidative evolution of the oil. It was found that zeolite nanocrystals decelerate the oxidation of palm oil through stabilization of hydroperoxides, which are the primary oxidation product, and concurrently via adsorption of the secondary oxidation products (alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and esters). In addition to the experimental results, periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to elucidate further the oxidation process of the palm oil in the presence of zeolite nanocrystals. The DFT calculations show that the metal complexes formed with peroxides are more stable than the complexes with alkenes with the same ions. The peroxides captured in the zeolite X nanocrystals consequently decelerate further oxidation toward formation of acids. Unlike the monovalent alkali metal cations in the zeolite X nanocrystals (K(+), Na(+), and Li(+)), Ca(2+) reduced the acidity of the oil by neutralizing the acidic carboxylate compounds to COO(-)(Ca(2+))1/2 species.
EMT-type zeolite nanoparticles (EMT NPs) with particle size of 10-20 nm and external surface area of 200 m2/g have shown high selective affinity toward plasma protein (fibrinogen). Besides, the EMT NPs have demonstrated no adverse effect on blood coagulation hemostasis. Therefore, it was envisioned that the EMT NPs could inhibit possible β-amyloid (Aβ)-fibrinogen interactions that result in the formation of structurally abnormal clots, which are resistant to lysis, in cerebral vessels of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). To evaluate this hypothesis, the clot formation and degradation of Aβ-fibrinogen in the presence and absence of the EMT zeolite NPs were assessed. The results clearly showed that the delay in clot dissolution was significantly reduced in the presence of zeolite NPs. By formation of protein corona, the EMT NPs showed a negligible reduction in their inhibitory strength. Docking of small molecules (Aβ-fibrinogen) introduced a novel potential inhibitory candidate. The zeolite NPs showed similar inhibitory effects on binding of fibrinogen to both Aβ(25-35) and/or Aβ(1-42). This indicates that the inhibitory strength of these NPs is independent of Aβ sequence, and it is suggested that the zeolite NPs adsorb fibrinogen and specifically obstruct their Aβ binding sites. Therefore, the zeolite NPs can be the safe and effective inhibitors in preventing Aβ-fibrinogen interaction and consequent cognitive damage.
Fibrinogen is one of the key proteins that participate in the protein corona composition of many types of nanoparticles (NPs), and its conformational changes are crucial for activation of immune systems. Recently, we demonstrated that the fibrinogen highly contributed in the protein corona composition at the surface of zeolite nanoparticles. Therefore, understanding the interaction of fibrinogen with zeolite nanoparticles in more details could shed light of their safe applications in medicine. Thus, we probed the molecular interactions between fibrinogen and zeolite nanoparticles using both experimental and simulation approaches. The results indicated that fibrinogen has a strong and thermodynamically favorable interaction with zeolite nanoparticles in a non-cooperative manner. Additionally, fibrinogen experienced a substantial conformational change in the presence of zeolite nanoparticles through a concentration-dependent manner. Simulation results showed that both E- and D-domain of fibrinogen are bound to the EMT zeolite NPs via strong electrostatic interactions, and undergo structural changes leading to exposing normally buried sequences. D-domain has more contribution in this interaction and the C-terminus of γ chain (γ377-394), located in D-domain, showed the highest level of exposure compared to other sequences/residues.