Biopreservation and Homogeneity of Sugar/Water Matrices: A Comparative Study by Molecular Modelling

Structural properties of trehalose, maltose and sucrose disaccharides in water have been investigated by Molecular Dynamics computer simulations at different concentrations and temperatures. Water‐sugar and both intra and inter sugar‐sugar properties and their relationships have been probed in order to measure the homogeneity of the different mixtures. The results reported here show that maltose/water systems are less homogeneous owing the tendency of maltose molecules to form clusters and thus reducing their possibility to destructure the water HB network. For sucrose/water solutions, the higher probability of sucrose molecules to form intra‐molecular HBs strongly reduces their interaction with both water or other sugar molecules. Unlikely to maltose or sucrose, trehalose molecules possess similar capabilities to interact with both sugar and water molecules which make trehalose/water a more homogeneous system. This homogeneity of the disaccharide/water matrices due to the reciprocal interactions between sugar and water molecules may rule their biopreservative efficiency.