PolySciTech polymers used in development of tannic-acid modified nanoparticles for surface modifications

For targeted delivery and other applications, nanoparticles must first be surface functionalized to allow for attachment of desired moieties. One means to do this is to apply polydopamine, but this molecule has drawbacks such as optical properties and interferes with ligand characterization. Researchers at Purdue University recently developed a technique for coating nanoparticles with tannic acid and used this to generate surface modified nanoparticles. To formulate the base nanoparticles and render them fluorescent for tracking purposes, they utilized several products from PolySciTech (www.polyscitech.com) including PLGA (PolyVivo AP150), PLGA-FITC (PolyVivo AV001), and PLGA-Rhodamine B (PolyVivo AV011). This research holds promise to develop a wide array of functionalized nanoparticles for drug delivery and other applications. Read more: Abouelmagd, Sara A., Fanfei Meng, Bieong-Kil Kim, Hyesun Hyun, and Yoon Yeo. "Tannic acid-mediated surface functionalization of polymeric nanoparticles." ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering (2016). http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00497

 “Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) are decorated with various types of molecules to control their functions and interactions with specific cells. We previously used polydopamine (pD) to prime-coat poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs and conjugated functional ligands onto the NPs via the pD coating. In this study, we report tannic acid (TA) as an alternative prime coating that is functionally comparable to pD but does not have drawbacks of pD such as optical properties and interference of ligand characterization. TA forms a stable and optically inert coating on PLGA NPs, which can accommodate albumin, chitosan, and folate-terminated polyethylene glycol to control the cell-NP interactions. Moreover, TA coating allows for surface loading of polycyclic planar aromatic compounds. TA is a promising reactive intermediate for surface functionalization of polymeric NPs.”