Hydrogels based on polysaccharide and protein natural polymers are of great interest in biomedical applications and more specifically for tissue regeneration and drug delivery. Cellulose, chitosan (a chitin derivative), and collagen are probably the most important components since they are the most abundant natural polymers on earth (cellulose and chitin) and in the human body (collagen). Pepti...

The use of toxins for cancer therapy has great promise. Gelonin, a potent plant toxin, causes cell death by inactivating the 60S ribosomal subunit. Recently, we developed a novel gene delivery system using biodegradable cationic heparin-polyethyleneimine (HPEI) nanogels. In the current study, the antitumor activity of a recombinant plasmid expressing gelonin (pGelonin) on human ovarian cancer w...

RAFT polymerization was utilized to prepare an amphiphilic block copolymer containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments. The self-assembly behavior of the block copolymer into nano-scale particulate structures was studied in both water and polar organic solvents. Uniform micelle assemblies were stabilized by reaction within the hydrophobic core, which contained pendant azide groups, thr...

Polysaccharide nanogels have been demonstrated to aid the refolding processes of chemically or thermally denatured proteins, a function that is similar to that of natural molecular chaperones. In this study, we examined the possibilities of using the nanogel chaperone system to mediate protein folding in a cell-free (in vitro) protein synthesis system containing transcription/ translation facto...

We investigated the biological activity of W9, a bone resorption inhibitor peptide, using NanoClik nanoparticles as an injectable carrier, where acryloyl group-modified cholesterol-bearing pullulan (CHPOA) nanogels were crosslinked by pentaerythritol tetra (mercaptoethyl) polyoxyethylene. Thirty 5-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were fed a low calcium diet and received once-daily subcutaneous injec...

Drug delivery researches has drawn tons of attention to achieve the targeted therapies that work for many diseases. Nanogels, a type polymeric hydrogels with nanoscale size, are promising materials drug applications. However, current polymers used synthesizing nanogels lack in biocompatibility, stability, and low biosafety. This review focus on mannan-based high loading capacity, multifunctiona...

A thiol-epoxy click chemistry reaction is used to introduce thiol groups on magnetic nanogels for the attachment of Au nanorods.

Indocyanine green (ICG) encapsulated hyaluronic acid (HA) nanogels were first studied for highly selective detection of specific cancers and lymph nodes via hyaluronidase sensitive switch-on of near infrared fluorescence as a long-lasting and stimuli-responsive imaging probe.