Nanotemplate Engineering of Cell Specific Nanoparticles

Abstract

Through nanotechnology, it is now possible to cost‐effectively and reproducibly create and develop useful small particles for applications in the pharmaceutical, medical, chemical, and engineering fields. In the pharmaceutical field, cost‐effective, reproducible, and scalable processes to engineer cell‐ or tissue‐targeted nanoparticles are sought to deliver potent drugs as new therapies. A natural and spontaneous method to engineer nanoparticles has been developed through the use of microemulsions whereby the dispersed phase droplets serve as “nanotemplates” to directly form stable nanoparticles. The present review will serve to provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities in developing ideal nanoparticulate carrier systems and the use of microemulsion precursors to engineer nanoparticles. An overview will be presented on our work in targeting surface‐modified nanoparticles to (1) dendritic cells for potential new types of genetic and subunit protein vaccines, and (2) solid tumors for potential neutron capture therapy (NCT) using gadolinium.

Keywords:

• Vaccine
• Plasmid DNA
• Folate
• Mannan
• Microemulsion

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. BES‐9986441) and from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Grant No. EB00531‐01). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of either the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health. The authors would also like to thank Dr. John Yannelli (Department of Internal Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, University of Kentucky) for supplying the human dendritic cells and Dr. Avindra Nath (Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University) for supplying the Tat‐GFP plasmid DNA.