Water-soluble Semiconducting Nanoparticles for Imaging.

Water-soluble semiconducting nanoparticles are prepared from individually collapsed and crosslinked ABA triblock copolymers and are further modified to carry imaging units and allyl functionalities for postmodification. Ethylene oxide modified polyfluorene forms the center block (B) and is transformed into a telechelic macroinitator. In a nitroxide mediated living free radical polymerization, polyacrylate blocks (A) are grown to give the ABA triblock copolymer.

Trans-meningeal drug delivery to optic nerve ganglion cell axons using a nanoparticle drug delivery system.

The purpose of this study was to investigate if neuroprotective drugs can cross the optic nerve sheath in vitro. Four optic nerves were used for this study. Two porcine nerves were harvested at the time of euthanasia and two human nerves were obtained at the time of therapeutic globe enucleation.

Controlled branching of polyglycidol and formation of protein-glycidol bioconjugates via a graft-from approach with "PEG-like" arms.

The control of the branching in polyglycidols as semibranched alternatives to traditional polyglycidols is presented. The relative abundance of dendritic carbons is lowered by five-fold compared to hyperbranched polyglycidols. It is the first example of tailoring the branching in polyglycidol and creating protein-glycidol bioconjugates as alternatives to pegylated biostructures.

Effective delivery of IgG-antibodies into infected cells via dendritic molecular transporter conjugate IgGMT.

IgG antibody-transporter conjugates enable intracellular uptake of biologically active IgG antibodies that inhibit viral mediated syncytia formation in respiratory syncytial virus green fluorescent protein (RSV-GFP) infected human epithelial cells (HEp-2).

Molecular dendritic transporter nanoparticle vectors provide efficient intracellular delivery of peptides.

We present the synthesis of a modular delivery system that is composed of two main macromolecular building blocks, dendritic molecular transporter molecules and a polymeric scaffold in a size dimension of 5-10 nm. The conjugated dendritic molecular transporter units proved to be critical for the delivery of the polymer nanoparticle into 3T3 cells and illustrates the dendritic molecular transporter promoted intracellular uptake of polymer particles derived from intramolecular chain collapse processes. In a sequence of modification steps, pyridinyldithio linker was introduced to undergo thiol-disulfide exchange reactions with peptide sequences containing cysteine amino acid units to furnish peptide-nanoparticle conjugates with cleavable disulfide linkers.

Approach to formation of multifunctional polyester particles in controlled nanoscopic dimensions.

We present the synthesis of discrete functionalized polyester nanoparticles in selected nanoscale size dimensions via a controlled intermolecular chain cross-linking process. The novel technique involves the controlled coupling of epoxide functionalized polyesters with 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) to give well-defined nanoparticles with narrow size distribution and selected nanoscopic size dimensions. Diverse functionalized polyesters, synthesized with pendant functionalities via ring-opening copolymerization of delta-valerolactone with alpha-allyl-delta-valerolactone, alpha-propargyl-delta-valerolactone and 2-oxepane-1,5-dione, were prepared as linear precursors which facilitated 3-D nanoparticles with functionalities such as amines, keto groups, and alkynes for post modification reactions.

Dendritic molecular transporters provide control of delivery to intracellular compartments.

Novel biocompatible macromolecular vectors were developed that not only enable transport of bioactive cargo across the cell membrane but also control the delivery into defined intracellular compartments. This work describes the synthesis and design of two non-peptidic fluorescently labeled Newkome-type dendrimers, differentiated over a varied alkyl spacer with guanidine end moieties. The internalization of the fluorescein-labeled molecular transporter into mammalian cells showed strong subcellular localizations, evident with both live cells and fixed cells costained with DAPI, a nuclear stain.