‘Reactive’ nano-complex coated medical cotton: a facile avenue for tailored release of small molecules

Abstract

Controlled and sustained release of drug-like small molecules in an aqueous medium still remains a challenging problem due to rapid infiltration of liquid water in most reported drug release systems. However, internal-superhydrophobicity with an antifouling property extending beyond the surface of a material recently has been recognized as a potential avenue for sustained and extended release of drug-like small molecules. Sluggish removal of metastable trapped air in a superhyrophobic material provides a basis to achieve extended release of encapsulated small molecules. In this article, naturally abundant medical-cotton-extensively used in wound management including control of bleeding, absorbance of secretions and protecting wounds from contamination-is strategically exploited in tailoring (from rapid to extended) the release of small molecules by appropriate modulation of liquid water wettability. Modulation included bio-mimicked adhesive and non-adhesive superhydrophobicity of the medical cotton without erosion of any polymeric material. In this process, amine 'reactive' nano-complexes (RNC) were prepared by just mixing branched poly(ethylenimine) (BPEI) with dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate (5Acl) in ethanol with appropriate compositions. Then they were covalently immobilized on fibrous medical-cotton through a facile and robust 1,4-conjugated addition reaction. Residual acrylate moieties in the immobilized RNC provide an opportunity to tailor water wettability through strategic and appropriate post-chemical modification of RNC-coated medical cotton with a primary amine containing various small molecules. This medical-cotton with tunable wettability was exploited further to control the release rate of small molecules from rapid (<24 h) to sustained (>100 days) times. A volatile solvent induced transient and reversible switching of anti-fouling properties which allowed further varying the amount of post-loading small molecules into the medical cotton up to 2.36 wt% without compromising the embedded anti-wetting property. Thus, our current approach has immense potential to develop appropriate materials for a sustained and controlled release of small molecules from a clinically relevant substrate (i.e., medical-cotton) and may be useful in various bio-medical applications including improving wound management, preventing bacterial infections, better pain management, etc.

A Scalable Chemical Approach for the Synthesis of a Highly Tolerant and Efficient Oil Absorbent

“…In the recent past, our research group has introduced a reactive polymeric gel via formation of chemically reactive nanocomplexes, where amine and acrylate groups of branched poly(ethyleneimine) and dipentaerythritol penta‐acrylate (5‐Acl), respectively, react through 1,4‐conjugate addition reaction . The reaction mixture of BPEI and 5Acl formed a milky turbid solution of nanocomplexes, which further reacted over time to transform into a chemically reactive polymeric gel after 3 h. Such short‐lived chemically reactive nanocomplexes were strategically integrated‐following multi‐step layer‐by‐layer deposition process for developing superhydrophobic coatings on both planar and fibrous substrates . Further, Cui and co‐workers extended this chemically reactive nanocomplex for synthesis of superhydrophic sponge for filtration based oil/water separation under externally applied compresive strain .…”

“…[41] The reaction mixture of BPEI and 5Acl formed am ilky turbid solutiono fn anocomplexes, which furtherr eactedo ver time to transform into ac hemically reactive polymeric gel after 3h.S uch short-lived chemically reactiven anocomplexes were strategically integrated-following multi-step layer-by-layer deposition process for developings uperhydrophobic coatings on both planar and fibrouss ubstrates. [42,43] Further,C ui and coworkers extended this chemically reactive nanocomplexf or synthesis of superhydrophic sponge for filtration based oil/ water separation under externally applied compresive strain. [44] However, in this current work, as table dispersion of chemically "reactive" polymericn ano-complexes were obtained by adopting as imple half dilution process, for introducing ah ighly scalable synthetic process of superhydrophobic MF (SMF).…”

DNA Vaccines—How Far From Clinical Use?

“…So far, NC are used predominantly as delivery systems for drugs, adjuvants or nucleic acid-based vaccines contributing to the emerging field of nano-vaccines [ 125 ]. One of the most frequent applications of NC is the use in tumor therapy [ 126 ] as they have many advantages over classical chemotherapeutics and other pharmacology agents like improved bioavailability [ 127 ], organ- [ 128 ] or cell type- [ 16 ] specific targeting, tunable drug release [ 129 ], and addressing of organelles [ 130 ]. The exact mode of interaction of NC with a cell membrane is strongly influenced by the size, charge, shape, and hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface properties of the former, and uptake most often occurs either by membrane penetration which is associated with transient appearance of holes or by receptor-mediated endocytosis [ 131 ].…”

The synthesis of a chemically reactive and polymeric luminescent gel

“…[48][49][50][51] Recently, amine of branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI) was covalently reacted with acrylate of dipentaerythritol penta-acrylate (5Acl) through 1,4-cojugate addition reaction at ambient conditions for synthesizing chemically reactive interfaces, which were extended to tailor various and extremes of liquid (oil/water) wettability. 13,16,19 In this current design, this same Michael addition reaction has been strategically introduced to synthesize a chemically reactive and fluorescent gel (CRFG). A widely accepted and standard hydrothermal approach was followed to prepare fluorescent carbon dots from BPEI, which is denoted as BPEI-CDs as shown in Scheme 1A-B.…”

“…Chemically reactive polymeric interfaces that were conventionally synthesized following, layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition, [1][2][8][9][10]12 chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [3][4][5] and other processes [6][7]11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] were extended for designing various practically relevant functionalized soft-materials. The residual chemical reactivity in such interfaces allowed a robust and covalent association of different desired chemical functionalities mainly following a catalyst-assisted click reaction, [3][4][5][6][7]11,17,18 click-type ring opening reaction [1][2][8][9][10][12][13]15 and 1,4-conjugate addition reaction 9,14,16,19 etc. In the past, the residual chemical reactivities were mostly extended for designing patterned interfaces, 1,[6][7]10,15 bio-interface [2][3]…”