Magnetically responsive liquid core polyelectrolyte nanocapsules

Abstract

The aim of this work was to develop the method of preparation of magnetically responsive, loaded nanocapsules based on a liquid core encapsulation by polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer adsorption. Magnetically responsive drug nanodelivery systems were prepared by the sequential adsorption of PEs (layer-by-layer technique) using biocompatible PEs (poly-l-lysine as the polycation and poly-glutamic acid as the polyanion). The model lipophilic drug, β-carotene, was successfully encapsulated in the liquid core while Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were embedded into the PE multilayer shell. This magnetically responsive drug nanodelivery system may be a promising platform for future targeted therapies (e.g. cancer) or other biomedical applications (e.g. separation systems and diagnostics).

• Drug delivery
• encapsulation
• liquid core
• magnetic properties
• nanocapsules
• polyelectrolyte multilayers

Acknowledgements

Authors wishes to thank Prof Gleb Sukhorukov for their helpful suggestions.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article. This work was supported by JUVENTUS IP2012 058972 project and by the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium – a Leading National Research Centre KNOW supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, research project under the grant for young scientists.