Oral delivery of proteins remains challenging due to their instability and degradation in the gastro-intestinal tract. In March 2021, Xuli Feng and Hui Chen reported a method to encapsulate natural anti-inflammatory proteins using wind-bell-like cyclodextrins (WCC) for effective oral delivery of proteins.

Amphiphilic WCC can self-assemble into nanoparticles in aqueous solution, and by simply mixing them with protein solutions, excellent encapsulation of two antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), can be achieved, avoiding any additional tedious steps that might inactivate the proteins.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Central Universities Basic Research Operation Fund.

Links to the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961221001095

DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120753