Question

2. What property of RBC ghost membranes allow certain molecules to cross more readily compared to artificial liposomes?

A. The membrane of RBC ghost has holes that allow large molecules to pass through

B. The membrane of RBC ghost has transporter protein which helps nutritional molecules getting into the cell

C. The membrane of RBC ghost has same permeability to all type of molecules as artificial liposome

D. Both A and B

3. Which interaction is NOTtaking place when Deoxycholate (Detergent C) aggregates in an aqueous environment?

A. Van der Waal's forces between the -CH₃groups of two molecules of detergent

B. Hydrogen bonds between the -COO^-groups and the aqueous environment

C. Hydrogen bonds between the -CH₃groups and the aqueous environment

D. Hydrogen bonds between the -OH^-groups and the aqueous environment

Answer 1

RBCs are emerging as drug delivery tools, owing to their role of transporting oxygen throughout bodily tissues and lack of organelles they have been exploited for their use as drug delivery carriers. One of the approaches to preparing the RBCs as carriers are Hypotonic loading.  In this method, the Isolated RBCs are washed and incubated with the drug in a hypotonic solution. Remember the plasmolysis experiment where it was observed that if a cell is kept in a hypotonic solution it will swell. Here when the RBCs are incubated in a hypotonic solution with a drug there has been an observation that those RBCs develop transient pores in their membrane. It is through these pores then, when the cell swells it uptakes the drug molecule. Thus owing to this explanation the option A, seems a viable choice. This is the reason why naturally RBCs could be manipulated to carry a molecule and why comparatively to an artificial liposome they are a better option to be used as delivery vectors.

Since it is the hydrophobic effect that develops when the hydrogen bond between the water and the nonpolar solute is broken, an amphiphile in our case, deoxycholate follows this fate and aggregates. According to the hydrophobic effect in an aqueous solution, the nonpolar molecule will exclude the water where the hydrophilic groups present in it will form a strong hydrogen bond with the aqueous water. Thus maintaining phase separation and aggregation. There is also an involvement of the electrostatic interaction in the aggregation. Thus option C, i.e. the interaction of CH3 forming a hydrogen bond with the aqueous environment seems incorrect.