Polymeric Bionanocomposites as Promising Materials for Controlled Drug Delivery

Bionanocomposite from self-assembled building blocks of nacre-like crystalline polymorph of chitosan with clay nanoplatelets

Films containing a new crystalline polymorph are prepared by a one-pot technique combining the formation of building blocks of clay nanoplatelets with chitosan macromolecules and their evaporation-induced self-assembly.

A Cellular Compatible Chitosan Nanoparticle Surface for Isolation and In Situ Culture of Rare Number CTCs

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) isolation has attracted a great deal of research interest in recent years. However, there are still some challenges, including purity as well as viability of the captured CTCs, resulting from nanoscale structures and inorganic nanomaterials. Here, a chitosan nanoparticle surface is first fabricated by electrospray to provide a cellular compatible interface. The "soft" substrate, further modified by polyethylene glycol (PEG) as an antifouling molecule and DNA aptamer as a specific capture molecule, has a hydrophilic nature and is capable of specific capture of viable rare CTCs from artificial white blood cell (WBC) samples. Furthermore, a subsequent in situ culture strategy based on the developed cellular compatible soft interface is introduced for further purification and proliferation of the captured rare number target cells. The WBCs are weeded out after 2 d, and after a 7 d proliferation nearly 200 MCF-7 cells are obtained from 7 target cells with more than 90% purity. This work provides a promising strategy for viable isolation and purification of rare CTCs and it has great potential for achieving clinical validity.