Ricerc@Sapienza

The integration of nanotechnology in drug delivery has gained increasing interest over the past few decades. The clever use of nanoparticles has revolutionized how drugs are formulated and delivered allowing effective delivery and targeting of diseased tissues and organs. One of the crucial aspects of the success of nanoparticle-based drug delivery system is its ability to specifically respond to internal triggers or to an external one in order to make the nanocarrier leaky. Trigger-responsive carriers have the potential 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 trigger. The development of smart, stimuli-responsive nanoparticles offers the possibility of controlling the response of the therapeutic agent precisely and specifically. External triggers can be easily controlled and do not have variability problems that may be associated with internal triggers. Recently, a pilot study has demonstrated the feasibility of a smart controlled delivery through a magnetic field with intensity significantly lower than the usual ones reported in literature. In this way, a controlled release has been obtained through a magneto-mechanical approach without a macroscopic temperature increase. Specifically, an intermittent signals generated by non-thermal pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) was applied to high-transition temperature magnetoliposomes (high-Tm MLs) entrapping hydrophilic magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that have been proven to be a potential biomaterial to PEMF-controlled drug delivery system. Starting from these considerations, the innovative idea of this project is to demonstrate that the preferential location of the MNPs next to the liposomal bilayer could result in the enhancement of the PEMF actuation. For this purpose MLs will be prepared in presence of hydrophobic coated MNPs to allow their entrapment within the lipid bilayer membrane.