Abstract
Hydrogels are the
three-dimensional network of hydrophilic polymers, which have the ability to
imbibe large amount of water inside them. Their soft porous structure makes
them resemble the human tissue and serves as prefect candidate for drug
delivery and tissue engineering applications. Many studies showed the
development of fluorescence based hydrogels for various applications including
sensing and tracking therapeutics in vitro and in vivo. To obtain hydrogels
with fluorescent properties, it is possible to chemically or physically immobilize fluorophores inside the hydrogel matrix. However, these techniques
have several drawbacks; the synthetic routes are complex and tedious, the
fluorophores addition can affect the sought after hydrogel features, such as
biocompatibility and biodegradability, and the resulting hydrogels suffer from
potential leakage and photobleaching of fluorophores.FIU inventors have developed fluorescent hydrogels nanoparticles and microparticles that comprises
cross-linked gels of chitosan, hydroxyethyl cellulose, linseed oil polyol and a
crosslinking agent, such as glutaraldehyde. These particles exhibit
multi-channel fluorescence properties, which makes them a unique imaging agent
having a wide detection limit that is accessible for a variety of
instruments. These particles are useful
for diagnostics and therapeutics purposes including drug delivery, imaging of
drug migration, and selectivity by the tagging or binding of the hydrogel
nanoparticles and microparticles with appropriate antibodies or antigens. They
also can include magnetic nanoparticles, allowing a drug delivery formulation
to possess target specificity combined with in vivo drug monitoring.
Benefit
Possess excellent biocompatibility, cell uptake and surface functionalityDo not require any additional fluorescent labelsCan be used with various instruments
Market Application
Targeted drug delivery and image-guided therapyBio-sensingIn vivo drug monitoring and diagnosis
Publications
Arti Vashist et al. Development of Multifunctional Biopolymeric Auto-Fluorescent Micro-and Nanogels as a Platform for Biomedical Applications. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 8, p.315. PMID:32426338
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