Nanogel engineering for DDS: Cationic polysaccharide nanogels for intracellular protein or quantum dot delivery

POLY 229

Kazunari Akiyoshi, akiyoshi.org@tmd.ac.jp, Hirohito Ayame, Urara Hasegawa, Sayaka Toita, Wakiko Asayama, and Nobuyuki Morimoto. Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 2-3-10, Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0062, Japan
Nanometer-sized (<100 nm) polymer hydrogels (nanogels) have attracted growing interest due to the recent development of nanotechnology. There has also been interest in applying nanogels to drug delivery systems, such as protein delivery and gene delivery. We can develop tailor-made functional nanogels to create novel nanobiomaterials (nanogel engineering) by the self-assembly of functional associating polymers as building blocks. Several methods for in vitro intracellular protein delivery systems such as microinjection, modification of cell-penetrating peptide, cationic liposome systems and amphiphilic peptide based carriers were reported. However, the efficiency of cellular uptake is not always high. Here we investigated whether cationic choresterol-bearing (CHPNH2) nanogels can serve as intracellular protein or quantum dot carrier in comparison to conventional carrier systems. The cellular-uptake efficiency of CHPNH2 nanogels was higher than that of cationic liposome and peptide based carrier. CHPNH2-QD complex was effectively internalized by many kinds of cells without being aggregate.