In between molecules and self-assembled fibrillar networks: highly stable nanogel particles from a low molecular weight hydrogelator

Abstract

A low molecular weight gelator forms reproducibly nanogel particles with good temporal and thermal stability and they present accessible hydrophobic domains.

Self‐Assembling Supramolecular Hybrid Hydrogel Beads

“…[11] Surprisingly, however, there have been limited reports of a supramolecular gel being formulated as spherical particles. Miravet and co-workers reported this by dropwise addition of a DMSO solution of the gelator into an anti-solvent, [12] while Ulijn and co-workers used microfluidic methods and a waterin-oil emulsion to form gel microspheres. [13] Spherical nanofibre shells have also been formed via gelator self-assembly at the interface of oil-in-water emulsion microspheres.…”

Non-Polymeric Nanogels as Versatile Nanocarriers: Intracellular Transport of the Photosensitizers Rose Bengal and Hypericin for Photodynamic Therapy

“…The use of non-polymeric, molecular, nanogels as vehicles for intracellular transport of actives has been hardly studied to date. Here, the nanogels formed by compound 1, whose preparation and characterization were reported in a previous work, 9 show the capability of entrapping and promoting intracellular transport of two PDT agents, RB and HYP. These photosensitizers present markedly different physicochemical characteristics.…”

“…These particles have a gel-like nature as they are constituted mainly by water, according to static light scattering measurements. 9 Scheme 2 outlines the preparation of photosensitizer-loaded nanogels (PS@1) carried out in this work. In the first step, a gel of 1 in toluene is formed in the presence of the corresponding PS.…”

Photobehavior of the antipsychotic drug cyamemazine in a supramolecular gel protective environment

“…The synthesis of SVN gelator was performed according to the procedure described in ref. 27. For the gel preparation, a mixture of 4.3 mg of SVN in 2 mL of PBS were introduced into a cylindrical screw-capped glass vial (8 mL, diameter = 1.5 cm) and heated until completed solution of the gelator.…”

“…Thus, the parent low-molecular weight gelators can be easily synthesized from commercially available building blocks, and the presence of amide groups produces, under appropriate conditions, a monodimensional arrangement of fibers leading to the gel. In the case of L-valine, the hydrogel based on gelator (S)-4-((3-methyl-1-(nonylamino)-1-oxobutan-2-yl)amino)-4-oxobutanoic acid (SVN, Chart 2) fulfils the appropriate optical requirements to act as host of photochemical reactions [27].…”