Novel Application of the Sophorolipid Biosurfactant

Drug delivery is one of the most challenging fields today due to the development of drugs which have low aqueous solubility, and bioavailability. Instead of wasting millions of dollars and years on screening for new drugs, why not invest in increasing the efficacy of existing ones? Biosurfactants are amphiphillic molecules that display exotic surface active properties. They are promising biodegradable and biocompatible molecules that could be produced by a wide range of organisms. They can form structures called micelles that could encapsulate insoluble molecules and increase their bioavailability and solubility; such as drugs. In this project, the biosurfactant sophorolipid was used to enhance the solubility and delivery of an anticancer drug, camptothecin. The data obtained showed the significant effect of sophorolipids in which they maximized the solubilisation capacity of pluronic micelles. All in all, scientists are continuously searching for biocompatible molecules that could solve the never ending problems of drug delivery, sophorolipids should be considered in future pharmaceutical applications because they meet the search criteria perfectly.