A facile method to prepare superparamagnetic iron oxide and hydrophobic drug-encapsulated biodegradable polyurethane nanoparticles

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO NPs) have a wide range of biomedical applications such as in magnetic resonance imaging, targeting, and hyperthermia therapy. Aggregation of SPIO NPs can occur because of the hydrophobic surface and high surface energy of SPIO NPs. Here, we developed a facile method to encapsulate SPIO NPs in amphiphilic biodegradable polymer. Anionic biodegradable polyurethane nanoparticles (PU NPs) with ~35 nm size and different chemistry were prepared by waterborne processes. SPIO NPs were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation. SPIO NPs were then added to the aqueous dispersion of PU NPs, followed by application of high-frequency (~20 kHz) ultrasonic vibration for 3 min. This method rendered SPIO-PU hybrid NPs (size ~110 nm) suspended in water. SPIO-PU hybrid NPs contained ~50–60 wt% SPIO and retained the superparamagnetic property (evaluated by a magnetometer) as well as high contrast in magnetic resonance imaging. SPIO-PU NPs also showed the ability to provide cell hyperthermic treatment. Using the same ultrasonic method, hydrophobic drug (Vitamin K3 [VK3]) or (9-(methylaminomethyl) anthracene [MAMA]) could also be encapsulated in PU NPs. The VK3-PU or MAMA-PU hybrid NPs had ~35 nm size and different release profiles for PUs with different chemistry. The encapsulation efficiency for VK3 and MAMA was high (~95%) without burst release. The encapsulation mechanism may be attributed to the low glass transition temperature (Tg) and good mechanical compliance of PU NPs. The new encapsulation method involving waterborne biodegradable PU NPs is simple, rapid, and effective to produce multimodular NP carriers.

Composite Materials Based on Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and Polyurethane for Improving the Quality of MRI

“…The pure and PU nanocomposite samples were examined by FTIR-ATR analysis and, in Figure 1, the IR spectra of pure Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, and pristine PU and PU nanocomposites are presented. In the Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles' spectra, the strong peaks at around 558 and 571 cm −1 , respectively, were attributed to the vibrational frequency of the Fe-O bond [28]. In addition, the peaks observed at around 3423 cm −1 could be assigned to the O-H stretching vibration of H 2 O due to the moisture absorption in iron oxide nanoparticles [42,43].…”

“…This polymer type is capable of easily changing its properties by varying the chemical composition or adding filler reinforcement agents [20]. A significant effort has been made to develop new strategies to obtain different magnetic PU materials that can be used as adhesives [21], as encapsulating materials for flexible organic photovoltaic cells [22], as coatings [23], in decontamination/filtration [24][25][26], in the preparation of microwave-absorbing materials [27], and especially in biomedical applications [20,28,29]. The incorporation of nanoparticles into the PU matrix has the following advantages: a structural support and a functionalization of the matrix is provided by increasing the dispersibility of the nanoparticles and, secondly, their incorporation confers magnetic properties and antibacterial activity to the polymer [12].…”

Degradation and stabilization of polyurethane elastomers

“…This ingredients such as chitosan [580], silver nanoparticles [581] and iodine [582]. [58,389,476,581,586,[622][623][624][625][626][627][628][629], polyethylene butylene adipate (PEBA) [587,608], lignin [623], gelatin [602], chitin/chitosan [630,631], collagen [632], alginate [633] and heparin [634]. It is noteworthy that PUs with adequate biodegradability may still present excellent…”

D-Alpha-Tocopheryl Poly(ethylene Glycol 1000) Succinate-Coated Manganese-Zinc Ferrite Nanomaterials for a Dual-Mode Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent and Hyperthermia Treatments

“…Commonly, the superparamagnetic particles can performed as negative MR contrast agents due to the ability of shorten the proton relaxation time of spin-spin ( T 2 ) and resulted in T 2 -weighted images by signal reduction and darkness [ 47 , 48 ]. To evaluate the MR contrast ability of MZF@TPGS formulations as an innovative dual potential MR contrast agent, the T 1 - weighted and T 2 - weighted relaxation times were measured by a 20 MHz (0.47 T) Minispec at 37 °C.…”