Minimalism in Radiation
Synthesis of Biomedical Functional
Nanogels
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Abstract
A scalable, single-step, synthetic approach for the manufacture
of biocompatible, functionalized micro- and nanogels is presented.
In particular, poly(<i>N</i>-vinyl pyrrolidone)-grafted-(aminopropyl)methacrylamide
microgels and nanogels were generated through e-beam irradiation of
PVP aqueous solutions in the presence of a primary amino-group-carrying
monomer. Particles with different hydrodynamic diameters and surface
charge densities were obtained at the variance of the irradiation
conditions. Chemical structure was investigated by different spectroscopic
techniques. Fluorescent variants were generated through fluorescein
isothiocyanate attachment to the primary amino groups grafted to PVP,
to both quantify the available functional groups for bioconjugation
and follow nanogels localization in cell cultures. Finally, a model
protein, bovine serum albumin, was conjugated to the nanogels to demonstrate
the attachment of biologically relevant molecules for targeting purposes
in drug delivery. The described approach provides a novel strategy
to fabricate biohybrid nanogels with a very promising potential in
nanomedicine