AUTHOR=Vashist Arti , Atluri Venkata , Raymond Andrea , Kaushik Ajeet , Parira Tiyash , Huang Zaohua , Durygin Andriy , Tomitaka Asahi , Nikkhah-Moshaie Roozbeh , Vashist Atul , Agudelo Marisela , Chand Hitendra S. , Saytashev Ilyas , Ramella-Roman Jessica C. , Nair Madhavan TITLE=Development of Multifunctional Biopolymeric Auto-Fluorescent Micro- and Nanogels as a Platform for Biomedical Applications JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00315 DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2020.00315 ISSN=2296-4185 ABSTRACT=

The emerging field of theranostics for advanced healthcare has raised the demand for effective and safe delivery systems consisting of therapeutics and diagnostics agents in a single monarchy. This requires the development of multi-functional bio-polymeric systems for efficient image-guided therapeutics. This study reports the development of size-controlled (micro-to-nano) auto-fluorescent biopolymeric hydrogel particles of chitosan and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) synthesized using water-in-oil emulsion polymerization technique. Sustainable resource linseed oil-based polyol is introduced as an element of hydrophobicity with an aim to facilitate their ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier (BBB). These nanogels are demonstrated to have salient features such as biocompatibility, stability, high cellular uptake by a variety of host cells, and ability to transmigrate across an in vitro BBB model. Interestingly, these unique nanogel particles exhibited auto-fluorescence at a wide range of wavelengths 450–780 nm on excitation at 405 nm whereas excitation at 710 nm gives emission at 810 nm. In conclusion, this study proposes the developed bio-polymeric fluorescent micro- and nano- gels as a potential theranostic tool for central nervous system (CNS) drug delivery and image-guided therapy.