Nanoparticles gained attention for their ability to serve as viable carriers of active compounds in a broad range of applications. Examples are the delivery of fertilizers to plants, food additives, cosmetic ingredients as well as pharmaceutically active compounds such as vaccines, genes, drugs and other biomolecules (drug delivery) for example through skin or injection. However, health authorities are very attentive to the potential negative effects that may be induced by non-biodegradable nanoparticles. For example, EU member states have adopted a single regulation on the use of nanomaterials in any cosmetic products, including those carrying biologically active ingredients (so-called cosmeceuticals), requiring the disclosure of strict safety information. Exempt are nanoparticles that will be degraded in the skin over a reasonable period of time and not elicit any adverse effect especially if the degradation products are safe. For pharmaceutical products even stricter regulations apply in terms of product safety and efficacy, and stringent product approval from government authorities (e.g. FDA) is required. It is thus clear that the Life Science Sector has a strong demand for biodegradable nanoparticles.
Numerous examples in the academic and patent literature discuss enhanced biocompatibility, superior cargo encapsulation, and convenient release profiles for a number of cargoes from biodegradable nanoparticles to be used in a variety of applications in the field of medicine and cosmetics. Most widely used are polymeric nanoparticles based on natural polymers have advantages and drawbacks, making them more or less suited for certain application areas, e.g. natural polymers usually have a good biocompatibility. However, obtaining reproducible sample quality from natural sources is challenging. PLGA can be produced reproducibly but is hydrophobic in nature, which makes loading of hydrophilic drugs challenging. Next generation carrier systems should offer enhanced functionality to readily enable loading with multiple classes of active agents, allow chemical modification, bioconjugation or diagnostic labelling, if needed. Moreover, they should be easy to produce from natural building blocks, omitting the use of harsh synthetic agents. While the pharmaceutical/medical sector is more conservative, for the cosmetic sector it was stated, that “Terms such as ‘natural’, ‘organic’, ‘no artificial preservatives’ and ‘no animal ingredients’ are drawing formidable attention. This trend is creating heightened demand for products formulated as cosmeceuticals with natural and nutraceutical ingredients. Functional ingredients and innovative delivery systems are driving the new product development arena.”
The overall objective of this project is to develop a new biodegradable polypeptide nanomaterials platform and demonstrate its technical feasibility as nano-carrier platform for active ingredients for Life Science applications exclusively from amino acid building blocks. A series of copolypeptides was synthesized and their structure verified. These were successfully formulated into nanoparticles of 200-300 nm diameter and it was demonstrated that dyes as well as drug molecules can be loaded into the polypeptide nanoparticles. The simple preparation method of synthetic polypeptide nanoparticles will be useful as an advanced technology to develop fully biodegradable nanoparticles used as nanocarriers for active ingredients in biomedical science application.
