Fluorescently labelled PEG-PLGA from PolySciTech used in research on effect of nanoparticle shape towards behavior

 

Much still remains to be learned about how nanoparticles interact with cells and living systems. Due to the small size of nanoparticles (typically ~0.1 – 1 µm, < 1% the size of a typical human cell at 100 µm) they have the ability to transfer into cells or interact with surface proteins to elicit desired responses. Researchers at Hacettepe University and Süleyman Demirel University (Turkey) used fluorescently labelled mPEG-PLGA-FKR560 (AV021) from PolySciTech division of Akina, Inc. (www.polyscitech.com) to create labelled nanoparticles with controlled shape profiles. They investigated the effects of shape on drug release, cell interactions, and biodistribution. This research holds promise to improve the utilization of nanoparticles for disease treatment. Read more: Kaplan, Meryem, Kıvılcım Öztürk, Süleyman Can Öztürk, Ece Tavukçuoğlu, Güneş Esendağlı, and Sema Calis. "Effects of Particle Geometry for PLGA-Based Nanoparticles: Preparation and In Vitro/In Vivo Evaluation." Pharmaceutics 15, no. 1 (2023): 175. https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/pharmaceutics15010175

“Abstract: The physicochemical properties (size, shape, zeta potential, porosity, elasticity, etc.) of nanocarriers influence their biological behavior directly, which may result in alterations of the therapeutic outcome. Understanding the effect of shape on the cellular interaction and biodistribution of intravenously injected particles could have fundamental importance for the rational design of drug delivery systems. In the present study, spherical, rod and elliptical disk-shaped PLGA nanoparticles were developed for examining systematically their behavior in vitro and in vivo. An important finding is that the release of the encapsulated human serum albumin (HSA) was significantly higher in spherical particles compared to rod and elliptical disks, indicating that the shape can make a difference. Safety studies showed that the toxicity of PLGA nanoparticles is not shape dependent in the studied concentration range. This study has pioneering findings on comparing spherical, rod and elliptical disk-shaped PLGA nanoparticles in terms of particle size, particle size distribution, colloidal stability, morphology, drug encapsulation, drug release, safety of nanoparticles, cellular uptake and biodistribution. Nude mice bearing non-small cell lung cancer were treated with 3 differently shaped nanoparticles, and the accumulation of nanoparticles in tumor tissue and other organs was not statistically different (p > 0.05). It was found that PLGA nanoparticles with 1.00, 4.0 ± 0.5, 7.5 ± 0.5 aspect ratios did not differ on total tumor accumulation in non-small cell lung cancer. Keywords: nanoparticles; particle shape; anisotrop; human serum albumin; cellular uptake; biodistribution; drug delivery; PLGA”

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