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FRET Monitoring of Intracellular Ketal Hydrolysis in Synthetic Nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Nuhn Lutz,
Van Herck Simon,
Best Andreas,
Deswarte Kim,
Kokkinopoulou Maria,
Lieberwirth Ingo,
Koynov Kaloian,
Lambrecht Bart N.,
De Geest Bruno G.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201803847
Subject(s) - förster resonance energy transfer , nanomaterials , chemistry , intracellular , covalent bond , nanoparticle , polymer , hydrolysis , copolymer , nanotechnology , degradation (telecommunications) , combinatorial chemistry , biophysics , fluorescence , materials science , organic chemistry , biochemistry , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , telecommunications
Degradable synthetic crosslinking is a versatile strategy to harness nanomaterials against disassembly in a complex physiological medium prompted by dilution effects or competitive interaction. In particular, chemical bonds such as ketals that are stable at physiological conditions but are cleaved in response to disease‐mediated or intracellular conditions (e.g., a mildly acidic pH) are of great relevance for biomedical applications. Despite the range of spectroscopic or chromatographic analyses methods that allow chemical degradation in solution to be assessed, it is much less straightforward to interrogate synthetic nanomaterials for their degradation state when located inside a living organism. We demonstrate a method based on FRET analysis to monitor intracellular disassembly of block‐copolymer‐derived nanoparticles engineered with a FRET couple on separate polymer chains, which after self‐assembly are covalently crosslinked with a pH‐sensitive ketal‐containing crosslinker.