Niezabitowska Edyta, Gray Dominic M, Gallardo-Toledo Eduardo, Owen Andrew, Rannard Steve P, McDonald Tom O
Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZD, UK.
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5TR, UK.
J Funct Biomater. 2023 Jun 29;14(7):346. doi: 10.3390/jfb14070346.
Nanogels are candidates for biomedical applications, and core-shell nanogels offer the potential to tune thermoresponsive behaviour with the capacity for extensive degradation. These properties were achieved by the combination of a core of poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) and a shell of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), both crosslinked with the degradable crosslinker N,N'-bis(acryloyl)cystamine. In this work, the degradation behaviour of these nanogels was characterised using asymmetric flow field flow fractionation coupled with multi-angle and dynamic light scattering. By monitoring the degradation products of the nanogels in real-time, it was possible to identify three distinct stages of degradation: nanogel swelling, nanogel fragmentation, and nanogel fragment degradation. The results indicate that the core-shell nanogels degrade slower than their non-core-shell counterparts, possibly due to a higher degree of self-crosslinking reactions occurring in the shell. The majority of the degradation products had molecule weights below 10 kDa, which suggests that they may be cleared through the kidneys. This study provides important insights into the design and characterisation of degradable nanogels for biomedical applications, highlighting the need for accurate characterisation techniques to measure the potential biological impact of nanogel degradation products.
纳米凝胶是生物医学应用的候选材料,核壳纳米凝胶具有调节热响应行为的潜力,并具备广泛降解的能力。这些特性是通过聚(N-异丙基甲基丙烯酰胺)核与聚(N-异丙基丙烯酰胺)壳的组合实现的,二者均与可降解交联剂N,N'-双(丙烯酰基)胱胺交联。在这项工作中,使用不对称流场流分馏结合多角度和动态光散射对这些纳米凝胶的降解行为进行了表征。通过实时监测纳米凝胶的降解产物,能够识别出三个不同的降解阶段:纳米凝胶溶胀、纳米凝胶破碎和纳米凝胶碎片降解。结果表明,核壳纳米凝胶的降解速度比非核壳纳米凝胶慢,这可能是由于壳中发生了更高程度的自交联反应。大多数降解产物的分子量低于10 kDa,这表明它们可能通过肾脏清除。这项研究为生物医学应用中可降解纳米凝胶的设计和表征提供了重要见解,强调了需要准确的表征技术来测量纳米凝胶降解产物的潜在生物学影响。
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