Development of Encapsulation Strategies and Composite Edible Films to Maintain Lactoferrin Bioactivity: A Review

Abstract

Lactoferrin (LF) is a whey protein with various and valuable biological activities. For this reason, LF has been used as a supplement in formula milk and functional products. However, it must be considered that the properties of LF can be affected by technological treatments and gastrointestinal conditions. In this article, we have revised the literature published on the research done during the last decades on the development of various technologies, such as encapsulation or composite materials, to protect LF and avoid its degradation. Multiple compounds can be used to conduct this protective function, such as proteins, including those from milk, or polysaccharides, like alginate or chitosan. Furthermore, LF can be used as a component in complexes, nanoparticles, hydrogels and emulsions, to encapsulate, protect and deliver other bioactive compounds, such as essential oils or probiotics. Additionally, LF can be part of systems to deliver drugs or to apply certain therapies to target cells expressing LF receptors. These systems also allow improving the detection of gliomas and have also been used for treating some pathologies, such as different types of tumours. Finally, the application of LF in edible and active films can be effective against some contaminants and limit the increase of the natural microbiota present in meat, for example, becoming one of the most interesting research topics in food technology.

Keywords: active films; active packaging; edible films; encapsulation; food technology; gastrointestinal tract; lactoferrin; microparticles; milk proteins; nanocarriers; nanoparticles; polysaccharides; targeted delivery; technological treatments.

Figure 1

Graphs representing the publications found by combining the term lactoferrin with (a): nanoparticles, microparticles or encapsulation; (b): edible films, active films or active packaging, in PubMed (blue bars) and ScienceDirect (red bars) shown with years.

Figure 2

A schematic illustration of different processes of encapsulation used in food and flavour industries (adapted from Madene et al. [19]).

Figure 3

Scheme of LF encapsulation, co-precipitation of CaCO₃ and LF vs. post-loading of LF in porous CaCo₃ microparticles, both followed by Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition of bovine serum albumin and tannic acid and final dissolution of CaCO₃ (Redrawn and slightly changed from that contained in the article by Kilic et al. [46], which is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, accessed on 30 October 2021).