Triple Emission from Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Nanovesicles in a Single Excitation

Organic Nanovesicular Cargoes for Sustained Drug Delivery: Synthesis, Vesicle Formation, Controlling “Pearling” States, and Terfenadine Loading/Release Studies

“Sustained drug delivery systems” which are designed to accomplish long-lasting therapeutic effect are one of the challenging topics in the area of nanomedicine. We developed an innovative strategy to prepare nontoxic and polymer stabilized organic nanovesicles (diameter: 200 nm) from a novel bolaamphiphile, where two hydrogen bonding acetyl cytosine molecules connected to 4,4′′-positions of the 2,6-bispyrazolylpyridine through two flexible octyne chains. The nanovesicles behave like biological membrane by spontaneously self-assembling into “pearl-like” chains and subsequently forming long nanotubes (diameter: 150 nm), which further develop into various types of network-junctions through self-organization. For drug loading and delivery applications, the nanovesicles were externally protected with biocompatible poly(ethyleneglycol)-2000 to prevent them from fusion and ensuing tube formation. Nontoxic nature of the nanovesicles was demonstrated by zebrafish teratogenicity assay. Biocompatible nanovesicles were loaded with “terfenadine” drug and successfully utilized to transport and release drug in sustained manner (up to 72 h) in zebrafish larvae, which is recognized as an emerging in vivo model system.

Selective multicolour imaging of zebrafish muscle fibres by using fluorescent organic nanoparticles

Glowing fish: Fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) were prepared from pyrene-containing guanine analogues. FONs are able to penetrate into human cells and zebrafish embryos; they are nontoxic, biocompatible and were found to be specific for muscular tissues. This study demonstrates for the first time the possibility of using FONs for in vivo, whole-body, fluorescence imaging of zebrafish.