Loading drugs into delivery vehicles, or containers, is a critical step that determines the ability to preserve expensive materials, prevent premature release, and employ drugs with low stability. One can differentiate active loading, or loading against concentration gradient, vs. passive diffusion of cargo molecules into the containers. In this work, we achieved active loading of organic molecules into porous nanocapsules by using electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged molecules. For example, by using entrapped positively charged polyelectrolyte, we were able to take in 99% of negatively charged molecules from the solution. Changing the charge on the polyelectrolyte reversed the interactions with cargo molecules and served as a trigger for release. By adjusting the pH of the environment, PAMAM dendrimers entrapped in the nanocapsules get protonated or deprotonated, which makes it possible to catch the target molecules through the pores of capsules or release them when interaction disappears at a different pH. Compared to passive loading, pH-mediated active loading achieves high intracapsule concentration and cause minimal waste of cargo molecules.

Active loading and triggered release of charged molecules with porous nanocapsules

2019 Spring National Meeting

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