Abstract
In this short review, the main challenges in the use of hydrophobic nanoparticles in biomedical application are addressed. It is shown how to overcome the different issues by the use of a polymeric encapsulation system, based on an amphiphilic polyisoprene-block-poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymer. On the basis of this simple molecule, the development of a versatile and powerful phase transfer strategy is summarized, focusing on the main advantages like the adjustable size, the retained properties, the excellent shielding and the diverse functionalization properties of the encapsulated nanoparticles. Finally, the extraordinary properties of these encapsulated nanoparticles in terms of toxicity and specificity in a broad in vitro test is demonstrated.
Highlights
One of the main challenges in using high quality nanoparticles for biological applications is to ensure that the ligand system surrounding the particles fulfills specific requirements [1]
It is shown how to overcome the different issues by the use of a polymeric encapsulation system, based on an amphiphilic polyisopreneblock-poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymer
By carefully choosing the monomers, reaction conditions and block length ratios it is possible to reproducibly synthesize very defined ligands, using anionic polymerization techniques [10]. One advantage of this reaction type is the absence of chain transfer and termination reactions, which gives the opportunity to functionalize the polymer chains using specific terminating reagents [11,12]. In this short review we summarize our experiences with amphiphilic diblock copolymers for the encapsulation of inorganic nanoparticles for their use in biomedical application and show how the cellular response can be tuned by tailoring the molecular properties of the polymer ligands
Summary
One of the main challenges in using high quality nanoparticles for biological applications is to ensure that the ligand system surrounding the particles fulfills specific requirements [1]. One advantage of this reaction type is the absence of chain transfer and termination reactions, which gives the opportunity to functionalize the polymer chains using specific terminating reagents [11,12] In this short review we summarize our experiences with amphiphilic diblock copolymers for the encapsulation of inorganic nanoparticles for their use in biomedical application and show how the cellular response can be tuned by tailoring the molecular properties of the polymer ligands. The terminal hydroxy group was deprotonated with diphenyl methyl potassium (DPMP) to obtain a solvate separated ion pair, which is capable of starting the polymerization of ethylene oxide at room temperature (Scheme 1) Using this reaction path a variety of PI homopolymers and PI-b-PEG diblock copolymers differing in size and block length ratio were synthesized (Table 1). The values correlate well with the polymer size and lie between 6.0 × 10−7 M for the smallest and 1.5 × 10−7 M for the biggest polymer
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