In a certain stage of development, the performance of nanoparticle- or polymer-drug conjugates is tested "in vivo", that is, in mice or rats. Besides pharmaceutical and chemical characterization, the structural characterization of such drug carrier systems in terms of size, size distribution, and shape is typically performed in physiological salt solution prior to animal tests. The present work introduces a simple method based on dynamic light scattering to monitor the particle size in blood serum. Utilizing a model system of pegylated poly-l-lysines (PLL-g-PEOx) of various degrees of pegylation, x, it is demonstrated that large aggregates may form in human serum solution that are not observed in isotonic salt solution. Aggregates of a few hundred nanometers in size were found in mixtures of serum solution and PLL-g-PEOx with degrees of pegylation <10%, whereas no aggregates are being observed if the degree of pegylation exceeds 20%. The described method may have the potential to become an easy and routine test for drug carrier systems prior to animal applications.

In this work we describe the application of amphiphilic N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA)-based copolymers as polymeric surfactants in miniemulsion techniques. HPMA-based copolymers with different ratios of HPMA (hydrophilic) to laurylmethacrylate (LMA; hydrophobic) units were synthesized by RAFT polymerization and postpolymerization modification. The amphiphilic polymers can act as detergents in both the miniemulsion polymerization of styrene and the miniemulsion process in combination with solvent evaporation, which was applied to polystyrene and polylactide. Under optimized conditions, monodisperse colloids can be prepared. The most promising results could be obtained by using the block copolymer with a ratio of 90/10. Preliminary cell uptake studies showed that polymer-stabilized nanoparticles have only minor unspecific cellular internalization in HeLa cells. Furthermore, cytotoxicity assays showed no particle-attributed toxicity. In addition, the copolymer-stabilized particles preserved the shape and size in human blood serum as demonstrated by dynamic light scattering.

Dendritic cells (DCs) constitute an attractive target for specific delivery of nanovaccines for immunotherapeutic applications. Here we tested nano-sized dextran (DEX) particles to serve as a DC-addressing nanocarrier platform. Non-functionalized DEX particles had no immunomodulatory effect on bone marrow (BM)-derived murine DCs in vitro. However, when adsorbed with ovalbumine (OVA), DEX particles were efficiently engulfed by BM-DCs in a mannose receptor-dependent manner. A DEX-based nanovaccine containing OVA and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a DC stimulus induced strong OVA peptide-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation both in vitro and upon systemic application in mice, as well as a robust OVA-specific humoral immune response (IgG1>IgG2a) in vivo. Accordingly, this nanovaccine also raised both a more pronounced delayed-type hypersensitivity response and a stronger induction of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells than obtained upon administration of OVA and LPS in soluble form. Therefore, DEX-based nanoparticles constitute a potent, versatile and easy to prepare nanovaccine platform for immunotherapeutic approaches.

Herein the reactivity of the enzyme α-chymotrypsin in the confinement of polystyrene-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PS-b-PAA) vesicles was investigated. Enzyme and substrate molecules were encapsulated in PS-b-PAA vesicles with internal diameters ranging from 26 nm to 165 nm during the formation of the vesicles. While the loading efficiencies of enzyme and substrate molecules were practically identical for vesicles of identical size, they were found to increase with decreasing vesicle size. The kinetics of the α-chymotrypsin catalyzed hydrolysis of N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Phe-7-amido-4-methylcoumarin (AMC) was evaluated following the increase of the absorption of the product 7-amino-4-methylcoumarin by UV/Vis spectroscopy. The values of the catalytic turnover number obtained for reactions inside vesicles with different sizes showed an increase of up to fourteen times compared to the bulk value with decreasing vesicle volume, while the values of the Michaelis-Menten constant decreased, respectively. This increase in reactivity of α-chymotrypsin is attributed to the effect of vesicle-wall interactions in the finite encapsulated space, where the reagents could diffuse, leading to enhanced collision frequencies.