Abstract
Heteromer star-shaped nanoparticles have the potential to carry out therapeutic agents, improve intracellular uptake, and safely release drugs after prolonged periods of residence at the diseased site. A one-step seed mediation process was employed using polylactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), silver nitrate, and tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride (THPC). Mixing these reagents followed by UV irradiation successfully produced heteromer nanostars containing a number of arm chains attached to a single core with a high yield. The release of THPC from heteromer nanostars was tested for its potential use for breast cancer treatment. The nanostars present a unique geometrical design exhibiting a significant intracellular uptake by breast cancer cells but low cytotoxicity that potentiates its efficacy as drug carriers.
Recommended Citation
C. Brocker et al., "Heteromer Nanostars by Spontaneous Self-Assembly," Nanomaterials, vol. 7, no. 6, MDPI AG, Jun 2017.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/nano7060127
Department(s)
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Nanostar; Polylactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA); Star shape; Tetrakis (hydroxylmethyl) phosphonium chloride (THPC)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2079-4991
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2017 MDPI AG, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publication Date
01 Jun 2017
Comments
This work was funded by Missouri S&T’s OURE program, and the PI’s start-up.