For many years, several attempts have been made to enhance skin penetration by chemical, physical or mechanical manipulation to reduce the barrier function of the skin. The present study demonstrates the possibility of penetration enhancement for 400 nm sized nanocapsules loaded with a model drug consisting of a fluorescent dye by the application of tissue-tolerable plasma (TTP). Therefore, the stability of the nanocapsules and their penetration through the skin barrier prior to and in combination with TTP application was evaluated. The results revealed that the penetration of the nanocapsules could be effectively enhanced when applied in combination with TTP, hence delivering the model drug unaffected by plasma into deeper skin layers. The stability testing showed no significant structural changes of the nanocapsules after contact with TTP. Thus, the present study introduces a new strategy for the penetration enhancement of substances by the combined utilization of nanocapsules and TTP.

A facile route to phosphorus-functionalized polyurethane dispersions (P-PUDs) with improved adhesion properties is presented. (Bis)phosphonic acid moieties serve as adhesion promoting sites that are covalently attached via an end-capping reaction to isocyanate-reactive polyurethane particles under aqueous conditions. The synthetic approach circumvents solubility issues, offers great flexibility in terms of polyurethane composition, and allows for the synthesis of semicrystalline systems with thermomechanical response due to reversible physical cross-linking. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to investigate the effect of functionalization on the semicrystallinity. The end-capping conversion was determined via inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and was surprisingly found to be almost independent of the stoichiometry of reaction, suggesting an adsorption-dominated process. Particle charge detection (PCD) experiments reveal that a dense surface coverage of phosphonic acid groups can be attained and that, at high functionalization degrees, the phosphonic adhesion moieties are partially dragged inside the colloidal P-PUD particle. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCMD) investigations conducted with hydroxyapatite (HAP) and stainless steel sensors as model surfaces show a greatly enhanced affinity of the aqueous P-PUDs and furthermore indicate polymer chain rearrangements and autonomous film formation under wet conditions. Due to their facile synthesis, significantly improved adhesion, and variable film properties, P-PUD systems such as the one described here are believed to be of great interest for multiple applications, e.g., adhesives, paints, anticorrosion, or dentistry.

Peptide-polymer hybrid particles of submicron size yielding stimuli-responsive macroscopic films are presented. A thermoplastic polyurethane (PU) carrying polysiloxane and polyester soft segments serves as core material to obtain flexible, yet semicrystalline films with temperature-sensitivity. The synthesis is based on the high-sheer emulsification of isocyanate-terminated PU prepolymers, which in our model system purposefully lack any ability of colloidal self-stabilization. While emulsification in water leads to immediate coagulation, stable dispersions of polyurethane nanoparticles were formed in aqueous solutions of a hydrolyzed protein from wool. A comparison of dispersion and film properties to nonreactive, otherwise identical dispersions suggests covalent attachment of the peptide to the PU backbone. We show that the colloidal stability of the hybrid particles is completely governed by the peptide corona, and hence pH-triggered coagulation can be employed to induce particle deposition and film formation. Differential scanning calorimetry confirms partial crystallinity in the film and reveals strongly modified crystallization behavior due to the peptide.