Synthesis, characterization and cellular uptake of polymeric nanoparticles and nanogels.

Nanoparticles (NPs) have garnered increasing research interest as versatile platforms for drug delivery due to their unique characteristics, including the ability to target specific cells and release drugs in a controlled manner over extended periods. They offer promising solutions in the field of medicine especially in chemotherapy, enabling the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to cancer cells in order to minimizing damage to healthy tissues. One of the most studied drug delivery platforms is based on polymeric materials, more precisely Poly-Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid. PLGA is a polymer studied until 1980, is an FDA approved material for medical used and more than 20 medical products based on it are currently on the market. On the other hand, another promising platform is emerging in the last decade, the Nanogels. This family of materials is emerging thanks to unique properties such as high drug loading capacity, swelling ability, stability and the ability to protect and target delivery controlled. This study aims to explores the potential of polymeric PLGA NPs and Hyaluronic Acid (HA) nanogels as nanoparticle-based delivery systems, aiming to advance our understanding of their application in cancer therapy. The project involves in the synthesis and optimization of two different platforms of drug delivery, one based on PLGA and one on crosslinked HA, followed by a comprehensive characterization of these systems. Key aspects that have been studied synthesis parameters, size, Z-potential, encapsulation efficiency, stability, degradability, and cellular uptake. Cellular uptake has been evaluated using different cancer cell lines, specifically A549 (lung cancer) and U2OS (osteosarcoma), to gauge the effectiveness of uptake. In summary, this research aims to obtain an optimized synthesis protocol and characterization of 2 different drug delivery systems and evaluating critical points and advantage of both system from synthesis to cellular uptake.