Forming patterned nanoparticles targeting a fine level of control at the nano- and bio-interface is of increasing interest for personalised, targeted and combinatorial disease therapy.<br/>A synthetic strategy to generate branched polymer building blocks for the rapid construction of nanoparticles with pre-determined distributions of surface functional groups is presented. Hyperbranched polydendrons (HPDs) with a controlled mixture of PEG and dendron chain ends of different generation (G0 and G3), and different peripheral functionality (xanthate-, benzyl- and dimethylamino-functional), were synthesised and nanoprecipitated (50-70 nm). The patchy isolation of surface functional groups was confirmed through the <i>in situ</i> generation of thiol groups from xanthate-functional HPDs under mild basic conditions, binding of 4 nm gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and the quantification of clustering at the nanoprecipitate surface using TEM imaging. Direct cellular accumulation comparisons of nanoparticles with patchy and statistical distributions of surface functional groups (benzyl- and dimethylamino-groups) showed significantly-enhanced accumulation of patchy particles in phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells.

Direct synthesis of nanoparticles with spatial heterogeneity for tailored cellular interactions

256th National Meeting (2018)

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