Synthesis and Characterization of Degradable p(HEMA) Microgels: Use of Acid-Labile Crosslinkers

Hydrolyzable Poly(β-Thioether Ester Ketal) Thermosets via Acyclic Ketal Monomers

Hydrolytically degradable poly(β-thioether ester ketal) thermosets are synthesized via radical-mediated thiol-ene photopolymerization using three novel dialkene acyclic ketal monomers and a mercaptopropionate based tetrafunctional thiol. For all thermoset compositions investigated, degradation behavior is highly tunable based on the structure of the incorporated ketal and pH. Complete degradation of the thermosets is observed upon exposure to acidic and neutral pH, and under high humidity conditions. Polymer networks comprised of crosslink junctions based on acyclic dimethyl ketals degrade the quickest, whereas networks containing acyclic cyclohexyl ketals undergo hydrolytic degradation on a longer timescale. Thermomechanical analysis revealed low glass transition temperatures and moduli typical of thioether-based thermosets. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Strategic Design of Intelligent-Responsive Nanogel Carriers for Cancer Therapy

Owing to the distinctive constituents of tumor tissue from those healthy organs, nanomedicine strategies show significant potentials in smart drug delivery. Nowadays, stimuli-responsive nanogels are playing increasingly important roles in the application of cancer therapy because of their sensitivity to various internal or external physicochemical stimuli, which exhibit site-specific and markedly enhanced drug release. Besides, nanogels are promising as drug carriers because of their porous structures, good biocompatibility, large surface area, and excellent capability with drugs. Taking advantage of multiresponsiveness, recent years have witnessed the rapid evolution of stimulus-responsive nanogels from monoresponsive to multiresponsive systems; however, there lacks a comprehensive review summarizing these reports. In this Review, we discuss the properties, synthesis, and characterization of nanogels. Moreover, tumor microenvironment and corresponding designing strategies for stimuli-response nanogels, both exogenous (temperature, magnetic field, light) and endogenous (pH, biomolecular, redox, ROS, pressure, hypoxia) are summarized on the basis of the recent advances in multistimuli-responsive nanogel systems. Nanogel and two-dimensional material composites show excellent performance in the field of constructing multistimulus-responsive nanoparticles and precise intelligent drug release integrated system for multimodal cancer diagnosis and therapy. Finally, potential progresses and suggestions are provided for the further design of hybrid nanogels based on emerging two-dimensional materials.

HER2-Targeted, Degradable Core Cross-Linked Micelles for Specific and Dual pH-Sensitive DOX Release

Here, a targeted, dual-pH responsive, and stable micelle nanocarrier is designed, which specifically selects an HER2 receptor on breast cancer cells. Intracellularly degradable and stabilized micelles are prepared by core cross-linking via reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization with an acid-sensitive cross-linker followed by the conjugation of maleimide-doxorubicin to the pyridyl disulfide-modified micelles. Multifunctional nanocarriers are obtained by coupling HER2-specific peptide. Formation of micelles, addition of peptide and doxorubicin (DOX) are confirmed structurally by spectroscopical techniques. Size and morphological characterization are performed by Zetasizer and transmission electron microscope (TEM). For the physicochemical verification of the synergistic acid-triggered degradation induced by acetal and hydrazone bond degradation, Infrared spectroscopy and particle size measurements are used. Drug release studies show that DOX release is accelerated at acidic pH. DOX-conjugated HER2-specific peptide-carrying nanocarriers significantly enhance cytotoxicity toward SKBR-3 cells. More importantly, no selectivity toward MCF-10A cells is observed compared to HER2(+) SKBR-3 cells. Formulations cause apoptosis depending on Bax and Caspase-3 and cell cycle arrest in G2 phase. This study shows a novel system for HER2-targeted therapy of breast cancer with a multifunctional nanocarrier, which has higher stability, dual pH-sensitivity, selectivity, and it can be an efficient way of targeted anticancer drug delivery.

Recent Advances in Degradable Hybrids of Biomolecules and NGs for Targeted Delivery

Recently, the fast development of hybrid nanogels dedicated to various applications has been seen. In this context, nanogels incorporating biomolecules into their nanonetworks are promising innovative carriers that gain great potential in biomedical applications. Hybrid nanogels containing various types of biomolecules are exclusively designed for: improved and controlled release of drugs, targeted delivery, improvement of biocompatibility, and overcoming of immunological response and cell self-defense. This review provides recent advances in this rapidly developing field and concentrates on: (1) the key physical consequences of using hybrid nanogels and introduction of biomolecules; (2) the construction and functionalization of degradable hybrid nanogels; (3) the advantages of hybrid nanogels in controlled and targeted delivery; and (4) the analysis of the specificity of drug release mechanisms in hybrid nanogels. The limitations and future directions of hybrid nanogels in targeted specific- and real-time delivery are also discussed.

Hydrolytically degradable poly(β-thioether ester ketal) thermosets via radical-mediated thiol–ene photopolymerization

Poly(β-thioether ester ketal) networks are reported that undergo complete degradation with tuneable degradation profiles under acid and/or basic conditions.

Transiently thermoresponsive polymers and their applications in biomedicine

The focus of this review is on the class of transiently thermoresponsive polymers. These polymers are thermoresponsive, but gradually lose this property upon chemical transformation - often a hydrolysis reaction - in the polymer side chain or backbone. An overview of the different approaches used for the design of these polymers along with their physicochemical properties is given. Their amphiphilic properties and degradability into fully soluble compounds make this class of responsive polymers attractive for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Examples of these are also provided in this review.

Hydrogels with novel hydrolytically labile trehalose-based crosslinks: small changes – big differences in degradation behavior

Novel crosslinkers based on trehalose diacetals were synthesized and applied to the fabrication of degradable polyacrylamide-type hydrogels with pH-dependent degradation characteristics at around physiological pH.

Triazole-based cross-linkers in radical polymerization processes: tuning mechanical properties of poly(acrylamide) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) hydrogels

Poly(acrylamide) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) hydrogels were prepared by free-radical polymerization using triazole-based cross-linkers with different spacer lengths and functional end groups and hydrogel properties were assessed.

Easy on-demand single-pass self-assembly and modification to fabricate gold@graphene-based anti-inflammatory nanoplatforms

Zwitterionic chitosan (ZC) was modified by fully (both for lateral dimension and thickness) nanodimensional gold-graphene oxide (Au@GO) flakes under visible light and the potential of the resulting materials as biomedical nanoplatforms was investigated. Fully nanodimensional GO flakes floating in nitrogen gas were incorporated with Au nanoparticles to form Au@GO nanoflakes, and the Au@GO was then incorporated with ZC droplets to form the Au@GO-ZC hybrid nanoparticles. The collected particles were exposed to visible light to induce the photocatalytic activity of the Au@GO nanoflakes towards the ZC derivatives. The visible-light-exposed particles show different chemical and surface properties from the unexposed particles, while there were no significant differences in cytotoxicity and macrophage inflammatory protein production. This work suggests that incorporating fully nanodimensional Au@GO flakes with ZC is a suitable technique for ambient photo-modification of the chitosans' surface property without significant changes in size and shape and increases in cytotoxicity and inflammatory response.

Multifunctional metal-polymer nanoagglomerates from single-pass aerosol self-assembly

In this study, gold (Au)-iron (Fe) nanoagglomerates were capped by a polymer mixture (PM) consisting of poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid), protamine sulfate, and poly-l-lysine via floating self-assembly in a single-pass aerosol configuration as multibiofunctional nanoplatforms. The Au-Fe nanoagglomerates were directly injected into PM droplets (PM dissolved in dichloromethane) in a collison atomizer and subsequently heat-treated to liberate the solvent from the droplets, resulting in the formation of PM-capped Au-Fe nanoagglomerates. Measured in vitro, the cytotoxicities of the nanoagglomerates (>98.5% cell viability) showed no significant differences compared with PM particles alone (>98.8%), thus implying that the nanoagglomerates are suitable for further testing of biofunctionalities. Measurements of gene delivery performance revealed that the incorporation of the Au-Fe nanoagglomerates enhanced the gene delivery performance (3.2 × 10⁶ RLU mg⁻¹) of the PM particles alone (2.1 × 10⁶ RLU mg⁻¹), which may have been caused by the PM structural change from a spherical to a hairy structure (i.e., the change followed the agglomerated backbone). Combining the X-ray-absorbing ability of Au and the magnetic property of Fe led to magnetic resonance (MR)-computed tomography (CT) contrast ability in a phantom; and the signal intensities [which reached 64 s⁻¹T₂-relaxation in MR and 194 Hounsfield units (HUs) in CT at 6.0 mg mL⁻¹] depended on particle concentration (0.5–6.0 mg mL⁻¹).

Aerosol Nanoencapsulation: Single-Pass Floating Self-Assembly of Biofunctional Hybrid Nanoplatforms

Multifunctional nanoplatforms were prepared via floating self-assembly using a hard nanoparticle (NP) as the core and a modified-polymer (MP, cholesterol-chitosan linked with polyethylenimine) droplet as the shell in a single-pass aerosol nanoencapsulation process. The floating hard NPs (silica, calcium carbonate, gold-decorated graphene oxide, and thiol-capped gold) were directly injected into MP droplets at the opening of a spraying device. Subsequently, the solvent was thermally extracted from the droplets, resulting in the formation of biofunctional nanoplatforms. Measured in vitro, the genes complexed with the nanoplatforms were transfected into target cells, exhibiting higher efficiencies for the MP particles alone without a significant increase in in vitro cell cytotoxicity. The aerosol encapsulation could be further extended to prepare other combinations [gold-silica and gold-calcium carbonate including doxorubicin (Dox)] using the MP, and their hybrid natures demonstrated photothermal cancer cell killing and chemo-thermal Dox release capabilities through surface plasmon resonance heating.

Photo-derived transformation from modified chitosan@calcium carbonate nanohybrids to nanosponges

Zwitterionic chitosan (ZC)@calcium carbonate (CC) nanoparticles were conveniently obtained and transformed to biocompatible nanosponges by continuous gas-phase photo-derived transformation in a single-pass configuration, and their potential use for biomedical applications was investigated. The mean diameter of the ZC@CC sponges was ~166 nm (~72 nm for CC and, ~171 nm for ZC), and the sponges had a mesoporous structure (i.e., an average pore diameter of ~13 nm). Measurements of the sponge cytotoxicity were performed and only a slight decrease was observed (>78% in cell viability) when compared with pure ZC (>80%). The ZC@CC sponges had a similar transfection ability to lipofectamine (~2.7 × 10⁹ RLU mg⁻¹ protein) at a 50:1 ratio of sponge:DNA weight. Because of a porous structure, the sponges showed remarkably higher transfection efficiencies than pure ZC.

An acetal-based polymeric crosslinker with controlled pH-sensitivity

.An acetal based polymeric cross-linker with controlled pH-sensitivity was used for the synthesis of collagen hydrogels and sponges. The novel cross-linker was synthesized using DE-ATRP and was more biocompatible compared to the commercial 4-star PEG.

A dimethacrylate cross-linker cleavable under thermolysis or alkaline hydrolysis conditions: synthesis, polymerization, and degradation

2,6-Pyridinediethanol diesters can be incorporated in polymers conveying selective alkaline hydrolytic lability and acid stability, in addition to thermolyzability.

Intracellular delivery cellulose-based bionanogels with dual temperature/pH-response for cancer therapy

Polysaccharide-based crosslinked nanogles (bionanogels) exhibiting multiple stimuli-responsive release of encapsulated therapeutics hold a great potential as tumor-targeting intracelluar durg delivery nanocarriers. Herein, we report the synthesis of monodisperse dual temperature/acidic pH-responsive bionanogels (DuR-BNGs) by aqueous crosslinking polymerization through temperature-induced self-association method. The DuR-BNGs have prolonged colloidal stability and negligible non-specific interactions with proteins. In response to acidic pH at higher temperature (above lower critical solution temperature), they exhibit synergistic release of anticancer drugs as a consequence of both acidic pH-sensitivity of carboxymethyl cellulose and temperature-induced volume change of grafted thermoresponsive copolymers. In vitro cell culture results suggest that new colloidally-stable DuR-BNG is a promising candidate promoting dual stimuli-responsive drug release for cancer therapy.

Acid degradable poly(vinylcaprolactam)-based nanogels with ketal linkages for drug delivery

We developed acid degradable P(VCL-ketal-HPMA) nanogels for drug delivery via precipitation polymerization using ketal-bonded DMAEP as a cross-linker and hydrophilic HPMA as a comonomer.

Micro- and nanogels with labile crosslinks – from synthesis to biomedical applications

We emphasize the synthetic strategies to produce micro-/nanogels and the importance of degradable linkers incorporated in the gel network.

pH-degradable and thermoresponsive water-soluble core cross-linked polymeric nanoparticles as potential drug delivery vehicle for doxorubicin

Doxorubicin release at preferred lysosomal pH of the cancer cells due to pH-induced de-crosslinking of polymer nanoparticle core.

Aerosol-Processed Thermosensitive Nanocomposites for Controlled Drug Release

In this study, an ambient-spark-produced iron (Fe)-nanoparticle-laden nitrogen gas was mixed with an atomized solution of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM)-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The Fe nanoparticles reacted with NIPAM-PDMS in the atomized droplets to form encapsulated Fe nanoparticles, i.e., Fe@NIPAM-PDMS nanocomposites, whose size distribution was unimodal (showing only a NIPAM-PDMS-like distribution, with the Fe distribution eliminated). By varying processing temperatures, it was possible to obtain Fe@NIPAM-PDMS nanocomposites with different sizes and morphologies. This is further attributed to the quantitative incorporation of Fe nanoparticles into atomized NIPAM-PDMS-doxorubicin (DOX) droplets. The Fe@NIPAM-PDMS-DOX nanocomposites released different amounts of DOX under a magnetothermal effect, which produced different levels of cytotoxic effects on the targeted HeLa cells. The thermosensitivity makes these nanocomposites an ideal candidate for important applications such as controlled drug delivery.

Aerosol-based fabrication of modified chitosans and their application for gene transfection

Modified chitosan nanoparticles were conveniently obtained by a one-step aerosol method, and their potential for gene transfection was investigated. Droplets containing modified chitosans were formed by collison atomization, dried to form solid particles, and collected and studied for potential use as nanocarriers. Modified chitosans consisted of a chitosan backbone and an additional component [covalently attached cholesterol; or blends with poly(l-lysine) (PLL), polyethyleneimine (PEI), or poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)]. Agarose gel retardation assays confirmed that modified chitosans could associate with plasmid DNA. Even though the average cell viability of cholesterol-chitosan (Ch-Cs) showed a slightly higher cytotoxicity (∼90% viability) than that for unmodified chitosan (Cs, ∼95%), transfection (>7.5 × 10(5) in relative light units (RLU) mg(-1)) was more effective than it was for Cs (∼7.6 × 10(4) RLU mg(-1)). The blending of PEI with Cs (i.e., a Cs/PEI) to produce transfection complexes enhanced the transfection efficiency (∼1.3 × 10(6) RLU mg(-1)) more than did the addition of PLL (i.e., a Cs/PLL, ∼9.3 × 10(5) RLU mg(-1)); however, it also resulted in higher cytotoxicity (∼86% viability for Cs/PEI vs ∼94% for Cs/PLL). The average cell viability (∼92%) and transfection efficiency (∼1.9 × 10(6) RLU mg(-1)) were complemented further by addition of PEG in Cs/PEI complexes (i.e., a Cs/PEI-PEG). This work concludes that gene transfection of Cs can be significantly enhanced by adding cationic polymers during aerosol fabrication without wet chemical modification processes of Cs.

Core-crosslinked pH-sensitive degradable micelles: A promising approach to resolve the extracellular stability versus intracellular drug release dilemma

The extracellular stability versus intracellular drug release dilemma has been a long challenge for micellar drug delivery systems. Here, core-crosslinked pH-sensitive degradable micelles were developed based on poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(mono-2,4,6-trimethoxy benzylidene-pentaerythritol carbonate-co-acryloyl carbonate) (PEG-b-P(TMBPEC-co-AC)) diblock copolymer that contains acid-labile acetal and photo-crossslinkable acryloyl groups in the hydrophobic polycarbonate block for intracellular paclitaxel (PTX) release. The micelles following photo-crosslinking while displaying high stability at pH 7.4 were prone to rapid hydrolysis at mildly acidic pHs of 4.0 and 5.0, with half lives of ca. 12.5 and 38.5h, respectively. Notably, these micelles showed high drug loading efficiencies of 76.0-93.2% at theoretical PTX loading contents of 5-15wt.%. Depending on drug loading contents, PTX-loaded micelles had average sizes varying from 132.2 to 171.6nm, which were decreased by 17-22nm upon photo-crosslinking. The in vitro release studies showed that PTX release at pH 7.4 was greatly inhibited by crosslinking of micelles. Notably, rapid drug release was obtained under mildly acidic conditions, in which 90.0% and 78.1% PTX was released in 23h at pH 4.0 and 5.0, respectively. MTT assays showed that PTX-loaded crosslinked micelles retained high anti-tumor activity with a cell viability of 9.2% observed for RAW 264.7 cells following 72h incubation, which was comparable to PTX-loaded non-crosslinked counterparts (cell viability 7.5%) under otherwise the same conditions, supporting efficient drug release from PTX-loaded crosslinked micelles inside the tumor cells. These core-crosslinked pH-responsive biodegradable micelles with superior extracellular stability and rapid intracellular drug release provide a novel platform for tumor-targeting drug delivery.

Polymeric nucleic acid carriers: current issues and novel design approaches

To deliver nucleic acids including plasmid DNA (pDNA) and short interfering RNA (siRNA), polymeric gene carriers equipped with various functionalities have been extensively investigated. The functionalities of these polymeric vectors have been designed to overcome various extracellular and intracellular hurdles that nucleic acids and their carriers encounter during their journey from injection site to intracellular target site. This review briefly introduces known extracellular and intracellular issues of nucleic acid delivery and their solution strategies. We examine significant yet overlooked factors affecting nucleic acid delivery (e.g., microenvironmental pH, polymer/siRNA complexation, and pharmaceutical formulation) and highlight our reported approaches to solve these problems.

Enzymatically degradable nanogels by inverse miniemulsion copolymerization of acrylamide with dextran methacrylates as crosslinkers

Polyacrylamide nanogels crosslinked with dextran methacrylate were prepared by free radical copolymerization in inverse miniemulsion and their degradation by enzymatic cleavage of the polysaccharide chains was investigated.