title: Amphiphilic hydrogel nanoparticles. Preparation, characterization, and preliminary assessment as new colloidal drug carriers.
abstract: Inverse emulsion photopolymerization of acrylated poly(ethylene glycol)-bl-poly(propylene glycol)-bl-poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(ethylene glycol) was successfully employed to prepare stable, cross-linked, amphiphilic nanoparticles. Even at low emulsifier concentrations (2%) and high water-to-hexane weight ratios (35/65), the stability of the inverse emulsion allowed for the formation of well-defined colloidal material. Inverse emulsion characteristics and polymerization conditions could be controlled to vary the size of the nanoparticles between 50 and 500 nm. The presence of hydrophobic nanodomains within these otherwise hydrophilic nanoparticles was verified by using pyrene as a microenvironmentally sensitive probe. The hydrophobic poly(propylene glycol)-rich domains appear to be suitable for incorporation of hydrophobic drugs, encapsulating Doxorubicin up to 9.8% (w/w). We believe that the complex nano-architecture of these materials makes them a potentially interesting colloidal drug delivery carrier system and that the method should be useful for a number of amphiphilic macromolecular precursors.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine and Pharmacobiology (LMRP), Building AAB, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Missirlis
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tirelli
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hubbell
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003102:Colloids; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004337:Drug Carriers; D020100:Hydrogels; D007700:Kinetics; D036103:Nanotechnology; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003102:Colloids; D004337:Drug Carriers; D020100:Hydrogels; D004317:Doxorubicin