Ricerc@Sapienza

The integration of nanotechnology in drug delivery has gained increasing interest over the past few decades, revolutionizing how drugs are formulated and delivered allowing effective delivery and targeting of diseased tissues and organs. Trigger-responsive carriers have attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to the ability to act as `remote switches¿ that can turn on or off the therapeutic effects of the nanoparticles, based on the presence or absence of the stimulus to which the nanoparticles are sensitive. In this way, a controlled release has been obtained with my research group through a magneto-nanomechanical approach without a temperature increase. Specifically, an intermittent signal generated by a non-thermal pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs), generated by a commercial device yet used for medical applications, was applied to magnetoliposomes (MLs) entrapping hydrophilic or hydrophobic magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) proving to be a potential PEMF-controlled drug delivery system. Despite the good results obtained, the principal problem, especially for MLs incorporating hydrophilic MNPs, is the reduced loading of hydrophilic drugs. Moreover, some classic limitations of first-generation liposomes such as the physicochemical stability, elevated systemic clearance and the payload leakiness could be overcome accomplishing a hybrid assembly able to act as a depot system and to interact with a triggering remote signal, such as the external magnetic field, allowing drug release only when it is necessary reducing possible collateral effects. Starting from these considerations, the innovative idea of this project is to incorporate MLs in a hydrogel, in order to further increase the hydrophilic and hydrophobic drug loading, since liposomes could load both, and efficiently control the local release.