Paper accepted: "Characterization, solubility, and biological activity of amphiphilic biopolymeric Schiff bases synthesized using chitosans"

Today, Dr. Hellen Barbosa and Dr. Maha Attjioui’s and their co-authors’ manuscript on glycidol derivatives of salicylaldehyde-functionalised chitosans has been accepted for publication in the international journal “Carbohydrate Polymers”. This is the second of what should eventually be three papers describing the results of Hellen’s sandwich doctoral project between her home university in São Paulo and our university - where she spent six months in 2017. She had prepared and characterised these derivatives in Brazil, then came to us to study their biological activities together with Maha. In their first paper, they had described the salicylaldehyde-grafted chitosans, including their palladium and platinum complexes, and their biological activities. The use of these chitosan derivatives was limited due to their low solubility which was now increased by the addition of glycidol groups. Importantly, these glycidol derivaties maintained the good anti-bacterial and anti-tumour activities of the chitosan salicylates. While the first paper derived from Hellen’s and Maha’s collaboration was extremely fast to be published, this second one took much longer. We will see how the third one develops.