TY - JOUR
T1 - Stable formulations of peptide-based nanogels
AU - Rosa, Elisabetta
AU - Diaferia, Carlo
AU - Gallo, Enrico
AU - Morelli, Giancarlo
AU - Accardo, Antonella
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by PRIN-2017A2KEPL.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Recently, nanogels have been identified as innovative formulations for enlarging the application of hydrogels (HGs) in the area of drug delivery or in diagnostic imaging. Nanogels are HGs-based aggregates with sizes in the range of nanometers and formulated in order to obtain injectable preparations. Regardless of the advantages offered by peptides in a hydrogel preparation, until now, only a few examples of peptide-based nanogels (PBNs) have been developed. Here, we describe the preparation of stable PBNs based on Fmoc-Phe-Phe-OH using three different methods, namely water/oil emulsion (W/O), top-down, and nanogelling in water. The effect of the hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB) in the formulation was also evaluated in terms of size and stability. The resulting nanogels were found to encapsulate the anticancer drug doxorubicin, chosen as the model drug, with a drug loading comparable with those of the liposomes.
AB - Recently, nanogels have been identified as innovative formulations for enlarging the application of hydrogels (HGs) in the area of drug delivery or in diagnostic imaging. Nanogels are HGs-based aggregates with sizes in the range of nanometers and formulated in order to obtain injectable preparations. Regardless of the advantages offered by peptides in a hydrogel preparation, until now, only a few examples of peptide-based nanogels (PBNs) have been developed. Here, we describe the preparation of stable PBNs based on Fmoc-Phe-Phe-OH using three different methods, namely water/oil emulsion (W/O), top-down, and nanogelling in water. The effect of the hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB) in the formulation was also evaluated in terms of size and stability. The resulting nanogels were found to encapsulate the anticancer drug doxorubicin, chosen as the model drug, with a drug loading comparable with those of the liposomes.
KW - Diagnostic imaging
KW - Doxorubicin
KW - Hydrogel nanoparticles
KW - Inverse emulsion
KW - Nanogel formulation
KW - Peptide aggregates
KW - Peptide-based nanogels
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089132098&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089132098&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/molecules25153455
DO - 10.3390/molecules25153455
M3 - Article
C2 - 32751321
AN - SCOPUS:85089132098
VL - 25
JO - Molecules
JF - Molecules
SN - 1420-3049
IS - 15
M1 - 3455
ER -