Adverse Interfacial Effects upon Protein Stability： Implications in Developing Emulsion-Based Protein Delivery Systems

The objective of this study was to investigate the behavior of ribonuclease A (RNase) at the water/methylene chloride interface. It was aimed at better understanding the denaturation of proteins upon emulsification. RNase was vulnerable to the interface-induced aggregation reactions that led to formation of water-insoluble aggregates upon emulsification. Biochemical analyses demonstrated that intermolecular covalent linkages might have been involved in the aggregation reactions. The protein instability observed with emulsification was traced to consequences of protein adsorption and conformational rearrangements at the interface. These results indicated that emulsifying aqueous protein solutions in organic solvents should be handled with care, since emulsification could bring denaturation and aggregation to proteins.