To prolong in vivo circulation times of drug delivery nano-systems, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is often used to sterically shield nanoparticle surfaces. This serves to minimize adsorption of serum proteins to the nanoparticle and recognition and bodily clearance via the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS). However, a PEG corona also inhibits interactions between nano-carriers and target cells, limiting drug delivery and effective therapy. To overcome this dilemma, cleavable PEG coronas have been developed to maintain long circulation lifetimes of nanoparticles while also achieving efficient cellular interactions with targeted cells. In this contribution, various strategies and examples of drug delivery systems with a sheddable PEG corona are presented. Furthermore, we used embryonic zebrafish in order to track the distribution of nanomedicines in circulation upon intravenous injection, showing that in vivo distribution varies depending on the size and shape of these structures, the presence of a PEG corona and the effect of charge.

Controlling in-vivo fate of liposomes using a photocleavable PEG corona

256th National Meeting (2018)

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