Nature’s biopolymers represent an interesting material for the development of drug delivery systems. They are readily accessible, can be obtained in high quantity, are structurally well defined and trigger in most cases only a low reaction of the immune system. Especially proteins have favourable properties as structurally well-defined biopolymers for the formation of nanoparticles. They can have advantages over synthetic polymers when looking at specific areas like biodegradability, non-antigenicity, stability, binding capacity or toxicity. Because of these unique properties, protein-based nanocarriers are promising candidates for the delivery of therapeutics.<br/><br/>We present a universal approach for the preparation of protein-based nanoparticles. It features a new concept for the formation of particles based on the assembly of surface-modified proteins (see Figure). Our method allows the use of solvent evaporation techniques for the formation of stable nanoparticles without denaturation or crosslinking of the proteins. We obtain empty and drug-loaded nanoparticles with a size of around 100 nm that are stable in different physiological environments. The produced nanoparticles are non-toxic and can efficiently deliver the encapsulated drugs in <i>in vitro</i> experiments. Additionally, we transferred the method of particle preparation to various proteins in different sizes, showing that this method can be universally applied to any protein of choice. This opens up the potential for multifunctional nanosystems, where the function and structure of the particle material itself might be as important as the therapeutic payload.

Protein-based nanoparticles: A new class of multifunctional biomaterials

254th National Meeting (2017)

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