0000000000059996

AUTHOR

Thomas Fritz

Biodegradable hyperbranched polyether-lipids with in-chain pH-sensitive linkages

Hyperbranched polyether-based lipids with cleavable acetal units were obtained via copolymerization of the epoxide inimer 1-(glycidyloxy)ethyl ethylene glycol ether (GEGE) and glycidol, using anionic ring-opening polymerization. Cholesterol-linear polyglycerol (Ch-linPG) was used as a macroinitiator, resulting in branched polyethers with an adjustable amount of acid-cleavable units. Random copolymerization led to Ch-P(GEGEx-co-Gy) copolymers, whereas sequential copolymerization provided access to Ch-P(GEGEx-b-Gy) amphiphiles. The amount of GEGE was varied between 8–49 mol% of the total amount of monomer units. In addition, hyperbranched polyethers with a single acetal unit were prepared usi…

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Pentafluorophenyl Ester-based Polymersomes as Nanosized Drug-Delivery Vehicles

In this work, activated ester chemistry is employed to synthesize biocompatible and readily functionalizable polymersomes. Via aminolysis of pentafluorophenyl methacrylate-based precursor polymers, an N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA)-analog hydrophilic block is obtained. The precursor polymers can be versatile functionalized by simple addition of suitable primary amines during aminolysis as demonstrated using a fluorescent dye. Vesicle formation is proven by cryoTEM and light scattering. High encapsulation efficiencies for hydrophilic cargo like siRNA are achieved using dual centrifugation and safe encapsulation is demonstrated by gel electrophoresis. In vitro studies reveal low cy…

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Click modification of multifunctional liposomes bearing hyperbranched polyether chains.

Aiming at controlled modification of liposomal surface structures, we describe a postpreparational approach for surface derivatization of a new type of multifunctional, sterically stabilized liposomes. Application of dual centrifugation (DC) resulted in high encapsulation efficiencies above 50% at very small batch sizes with a total volume of 150 μL, which were conductive to fast and efficient optimization of variegated surface modification reactions. Cholesterol-polymer amphiphiles, including complex hyperbranched polyether structures bearing 1-4 terminal alkynes, were used in DC formulations to provide steric stabilization. The alkyne moieties were explored as anchors for the conjugation …

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Surface Modification of Nanoparticles and Nanovesicles via Click-Chemistry

Surface modification of nanocarriers offers the possibility of targeted drug delivery, which is of major interest in modern pharmaceutical science. Click-chemistry affords an easy and fast way to modify the surface with targeting structures under mild reaction conditions. Here we describe our current method for the post-preparational surface modification of multifunctional sterically stabilized (stealth) liposomes via copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) and inverse electron demand Diels-Alder norbornene-tetrazine cycloaddition (IEDDA). We emphasize the use of these in a one-pot orthogonal reaction for deep investigation on stability and targeting of nanocarriers. As the prod…

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Orthogonal Click Conjugation to the Liposomal Surface Reveals the Stability of the Lipid Anchorage as Crucial for Targeting

Synthetic access to multiple surface decorations are a bottleneck in the development of liposomes for receptor mediated targeting. This opens a complex multiparameter space, exploration of which is severely limited in terms of sample numbers and turnaround times. Here, we unlock this technological barrier by a combination of a milligram-scale liposome formulation using dual centrifugation and orthogonal click chemistry on the liposomal surface. Application of these techniques to conceptually new amphiphilic compounds, which feature norbornene and alkyne groups at the apex of sterically stabilizing, hyperbranched polyglycerol moieties, revealed a particular influence of the membrane anchor o…

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