Facile low temperature aqueous heterogeneous RAFT polymerization for preparation of novel star polymers with acid-labile diacetal-based cores for DNA delivery.

In this study, fetal MRI and US had a high degree of accuracy with concordant postnatal imaging. Our study is similar to other case series suggesting that a range of clinical outcomes is possible with isolated absent CSP, but long-term patient follow up is necessary.

Biocompatible antibody-nanoparticle conjugates have attracted interest as anti-cancer agents due to their potential to selectively target therapeutic agents at disease sites. However, new formulation and conjugation approaches are urgently needed to improve their uniformity for clinical applications. Here, a pH-responsive benzaldehyde functionalized poly[oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate-st-para-formyl phenyl methacrylate]-b-poly[2-(diisopropyl)aminoethyl methacrylate] [P(OEGMA-st-pFPMA)-b-PDPA] block copolymer, prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, produced PEGylated nanoparticles (pH~7.4) by single emulsion-solvent evaporation formulation approach. Efficient site-specific attachment of an aminooxy-functionalized anti-EGFR single-domain antibody (sdAb) on these benzaldehyde-decorated nanoparticles is achieved by oxime bond formation. These nanoconjugates can specifically bind EGFR (modified ELISA) and have enhanced uptake over non-functionalized controls in EGFR-positive HeLa cells. Encapsulation of rhodamine 6G dye and its dispersion upon cellular uptake, consistent with nanoparticle stability loss at pH<5.7, proves their ability to facilitate triggered release in endosomal compartments and highlight their potential for use as next-generation antibody-drug nanoconjugates for therapeutic drug delivery. ASSOCIATED CONTENT Supporting Information. Experimental details; polymer SEC and 1 H NMR data; nanoparticle NTA, DLS, UV-Vis and intrinsic toxicity, fluorescent dye release data and in vitro cell uptake; aminooxy-functionalised EGFR sdAb SDS PAGE and electrospray mass spectroscopy data; HeLa cell EGFR expression by flow cytometry. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

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