Electron-Beam Irradiation-Sculptured Nanogels as Drug Delivery Systems for Prostate Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) nanogels were synthesized via electron-beam irradiation and subsequently functionalized as targeted nanochemotherapeutic systems for prostate cancer. In particular, in this work, PVP-co-acrylic acid nanogels (05AA50) were obtained by radiation-induced crosslinking of PVP and simultaneous grafting of acrylic acid (AA) at 40kGy of irradiation dose using an industrial linear accelerator. These nanogels were subsequently functionalised with a Glu-urea-Glu tripeptide binding to the prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), that can provide the nanogels with active targeting features, and in parallel loaded with a model chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin (DOXO). The successful conjugation of the PSMA targeting ligand and doxorubicin (DOXO) to the nanogels was confirmed by UV–Vis fluorescence spectroscopy. Structural effects on the nanogel induced by DOXO incorporation were investigated by attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Multi-angle dynamic light scattering (DLS) and ?-potential measurements were conducted before DOXO loading to verify the preservation of the nanometric size distribution and the negative surface charge density of the nanogels. Taken together, these results indicate that 05AA50 represents a promising nanoplatform for the development of target-specific nano-chemotherapeutics for prostate cancer.