Poly(amino acid)-based nanogel by horseradish peroxidase catalyzed crosslinking in an inverse miniemulsion

Design and applications of polymer-like peptides in biomedical nanogels

INTRODUCTION

Polymer nanogels are among the most promising nanoplatforms for use in biomedical applications. The substantial interest for these drug carriers is to enhance the transportation of bioactive substances, reduce the side effects, and achieve optimal action on the curative sites by targeting delivery and triggering the release of the drugs in a controlled and continuous mode.

AREA COVERED

The review discusses the opportunities, applications, and challenges of synthetic polypeptide nanogels in biomedicine, with an emphasis on the recent progress in cancer therapy. It is evidenced by the development of polypeptide nanogels for better controlled drug delivery and release, in complex in vivo microenvironments in biomedical applications.

EXPERT OPINION

Polypeptide nanogels can be developed by choosing the amino acids from the peptide structure that are suitable for the type of application. Using a stimulus - sensitive peptide nanogel, it is possible to obtain the appropriate transport and release of the drug, as well as to achieve desirable therapeutic effects, including safety, specificity, and efficiency. The final system represents an innovative way for local and sustained drug delivery at a specific site of the body.

Size-tunable nanogels for cascaded release of metronidazole and chemotherapeutic agents to combat Fusobacterium nucleatum-infected colorectal cancer

Bacteria play important roles in tumor formation, growth and metastasis through downregulating immune response and initiating drug resistance. Herein, size-tunable nanogels (NGs) have been developed to address the existing size paradox in tumor accumulation, intratumoral penetration and intracellular release of therapeutics for the treatment of Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum)-infected colorectal cancer. Zinc-imidazolate frameworks with doxorubicin (DOX) loading and folate grafting (f-ZIFD) were mixed with metronidazole (MET) and encapsulated in NGs through thiol-ene click crosslinking of sulfhydryl hyaluronan, sulfhydryl alginate and 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol) acrylate. Hyaluronidase-initiated matrix degradation causes NG swelling to release sufficient MET and maintains a large size for an extended time period, and the gradually discharged f-ZIFD nanoparticles (NPs) from NGs exhibit acid-responsive intracellular release of DOX after folate-mediated internalization into tumor cells. The encapsulation into NGs significantly enhances the bioavailability and increases half-lives of MET and DOX by around 20 times. In the F. nucleatum-infected tumor model, the extended retention of swollen NGs and the efficient tumor infiltration and cellular uptake of the discharged f-ZIFD NPs cause 6 times higher DOX levels in tumors than that of free DOX administration. F. nucleatum promotes tumor cell proliferation and tumor growth, and the cascaded releases of MET and f-ZIFD NPs eliminate F. nucleatum to effectively inhibit tumor growth with a significant extension of animal survival. Thus, the hyaluronidase-mediated NG expansion and dual-responsive cascaded drug release have overcome challenges in the release regimen and size paradox of drug delivery carriers to combat bacteria-infected cancer.

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.

Biocompatible polypeptide nanogel: Effect of surfactants on nanogelation in inverse miniemulsion, in vivo biodistribution and blood clearance evaluation

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)/H₂O₂-mediated crosslinking of polypeptides in inverse miniemulsion is a promising approach for the development of next-generation biocompatible and biodegradable nanogels. Herein, we present a fundamental investigation of the effects of three surfactants and their different concentrations on the (HRP)/H₂O₂-mediated nanogelation of poly[N⁵-(2-hydroxyethyl)-l-glutamine-ran-N⁵-propargyl-l-glutamine-ran-N⁵-(6-aminohexyl)-l-glutamine]-ran-N⁵-[2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethyl)-l-glutamine] (PHEG-Tyr) in inverse miniemulsion. The surfactants sorbitan monooleate (SPAN 80), polyoxyethylenesorbitan trioleate (TWEEN 85), and dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) were selected and their influence on the nanogel size, size distribution, and morphology was evaluated. The most effective nanogelation stabilization was achieved with 20 wt% nonionic surfactant SPAN 80. The diameter of the hydrogel nanoparticles was 230 nm (dynamic light scattering, DLS) and was confirmed also by nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) which showed the diameters ranging from 200 to 300 nm. Microscopy and image analyses showed that the nanogel in the dry state was spherical in shape and had number-average diameter D_n = 26 nm and dispersity Р= 1.91. In the frozen-hydrated state, the nanogel appeared porous and was larger in size with D_n = 182 nm and Р= 1.52. Our results indicated that the nanogelation of the polymer precursor required a higher concentration of surfactant than classical inverse miniemulsion polymerization to ensure effective stabilization. The developed polypeptide nanogel was radiolabeled with ¹²⁵I, and in vivo biodistribution and blood clearance evaluations were performed. We found that the ¹²⁵I-labeled nanogel was well-biodistributed in the bloodstream, cleared from mouse blood during 48 h by renal and hepatic pathways and did not provoke any sign of toxic effects.

PNIPAAM/SA pH-responsive microcapsules based on chemical and non-covalent crosslinking

A triple interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) with dual responses to temperature and pH was constructed based on chemical crosslinking and electrostatic interaction. In this IPN, CaCO3 microspheres were used as the kernel and PNIPAAM/sodium alginate microcapsules were prepared by the inverse emulsion polymerization method. Research results demonstrated that CaCO3 kernels were decomposed into Ca2+ and CO2 at pH 1.2. Such decomposition facilitated the formation of triple IPN of Ca2+ crosslinking. Moreover, microcapsules were expanded by tension of CO2 and the volume increased to 3.55 × 105 times that of the original microcapsules, with capsules remaining an intact morphology. These microcapsules loading doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) stability and responses to environment were investigated. No drug overflow was observed at pH 7.4, indicating the high stability of microcapsules. However, DOX was released gradually in the simulated human stomach acid with a weak solution of hydrochloric acid (pH 1.2, 37 °C). This showed that the prepared microcapsules were feasible for drug-loaded capsules and the controlled drug release behavior could relieve side effects of drugs to human body. Moreover, it will help to increase the drug utilization and realize accurate treatment.