Understanding of multilobular nanogels formation and its application as transdermal vaccination platform

MINARI, ROQUE J.; GONZALEZ, VERÓNICA D.G.; SONZOGNI, ANA S.

Simposio; XIII Simposio Argentino de Polimeros; 2019

Nanogels (NGs) are hydrogel nanoparticles based on crosslinked hydrophilic polymer networks. NGs show a great potential in chemotherapy, diagnosis, organ targeting and delivery of bioactive substances. Numerous synthesis strategies were implemented to expand NGs properties focus in several applications, adding different functionalities, inorganic compounds and with natural polymers incorporation. However, the synthesis of biphasic polymer-polymer NGs has not been exploited yet. In a previous publication, we proposed the synthesis of bifunctional NGs based on poly(N-vinylcaprolactam), PVCL, a thermo-responsive polymer, and a copolymer rich on butyl acrylate (BA), which promotes particle coalescence (i.e., film formation) (Sonzogni et al. 2018a). This system offers the opportunity of combining both the high loading capacity of NGs and the delivery capability from a film, which could be previously obtained or directly formed onto the surface where the release is required (i.e., insitu formed); and we proposed to employ it for transdermal vaccination. In this scenario the performance of this bifunctional NGs as topical delivery system of protein was compared with PVCL hydro and nanogels, and they showed a great potential as a platform for dermal protein delivery (Sonzogni et al. 2018b). In this case we study the morphology and the process involved in the formation of this bifunctional NGs, which exhibit an unconventional morphology for emulsion polymerization process. In this work we propose a mechanism for the formation of this eccentric particles, and we show some results related to its performance as a transdermal vaccination platform, including in vivo results.