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Design, Preparation, and Characterization of Thermoresponsive Hybrid Nanogels Using a Novel Ulvan‐Acrylate Crosslinker as Potential Carriers for Protein Encapsulation
Author(s) -
Morelli Andrea,
Puppi Dario,
Cheptene Victoria,
Disgraziati Dunia,
Ruggeri Giacomo,
Chiellini Federica
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201700631
Subject(s) - nanogel , copolymer , acrylate , bovine serum albumin , polymer chemistry , chemistry , ethyl acrylate , thermoresponsive polymers in chromatography , polymer , chemical engineering , materials science , drug delivery , organic chemistry , chromatography , high performance liquid chromatography , hydrophilic interaction chromatography , engineering
The aim of the present study is the design and development of thermoresponsive nanogels based on ulvan, a sulphated heteropolysaccharide of algal origins with unique biological and chemical properties. Hybrid nanogels are successfully synthesized by means of UV‐initiated radical copolymerization of N ‐vinylcaprolactam with an ulvan derivate as a novel crosslinker. In nanogels, the ulvan‐grafted poly( N ‐vinylcaprolactam) chains represent the thermoresponsive component. The most promising candidates, selected after a thorough physical–chemical characterization of nanogels in terms of size and responsivity to thermal variation at physiological conditions, are loaded with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as model bioactive compound. The developed nanogels display BAS loading efficiency values similar to those obtained by using synthetic crosslinkers, and thus indicating the suitability of the developed ulvan‐acrylate to act as novel macromolecular crosslinker for thermoresponsive nanogels preparation.