Abstract

Cationic block copolymer based nanocarriers for proteins and nucleic acids

Author(s): Stergios Pispas

Nanotechnological strategies for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes of life-threating diseases have attracted significant interest of the scientific community over the last decades, due to their beneficial characteristics compared to traditional treatment methods. Diseases such as cancer and diabetes mellitus are affecting more and more the population, so the shift to treatment methods, which are more compatible to human body, less painful and of fewer side effects, is essential. Nanocarriers are able to deliver pharmaceutical substances to human body with greater specificity and selectivity. In addition, they incorporate advanced physical and chemical properties, which enhance the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, contribute to the high drug-loading efficacy and provide targeting of only damaged cells (Martinelli 2019). Block copolymers are a class of effective nanocarriers for the delivery of biomolecules, since they can be designed and synthesized according to the desirable features that should contain. Size, shape and morphology of the formed nanoparticles can be controlled through the design and synthesis of the block copolymer (Kataoka 2012). Moreover, favorable solubility and colloidal stability in aqueous solutions, as well as high cellular uptake efficiency can be achieved via utilization of block copolymers as nanovectors. Polyelectrolytes are hydrophilic polymers used as nanovectors due to their ability to interact with oppositely charged biomolecules via electrostatic interactions (Sun 2008). Cationic block polyelectrolytes have been used extensively for complexation and delivery of biomacromolecules, such as proteins/peptides and nucleic acids. The result of the interaction is the formation of complexes of nanoscale size. The biomolecules are condensed and protected, while the formed nanoparticles are compact and able to be delivered to targeted cells.