Enhanced hydrophilicity of one-step electrosprayed red blood cell-like PLGA microparticles by block polymer PLGA-PEG-PLGA with excellent magnetic-luminescent bifunction and affinity to HUVECs

The incidence of cancer and other diseases continues to increase, posing a serious threat to human health. Drug delivery systems using bionic red blood cell (RBC)-like microparticles (MPs) as drug carriers have been extensively studied, as they are considered ideal carriers due to the unique shape. However, most methods of preparing multifunctional RBC-like MPs are complicated, and the cell affinity and therapeutic effect of MPs prepared using simple electrospray are unsatisfactory. In this context, hydrophilicity-enhanced and magnetic-luminescent bifunctional RBCs-like Janus MPs [Fe3O4@poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)PLGA/PLGA]//[NaYF4:Eu3+@PLGA-PEG-PLGA/PLGA] were successfully prepared by one-step double-needle electrospray method. The physical and chemical properties, such as morphology, particle size, structure, and thermal stability of the MPs, were studied. The addition of block polymer PLGA-PEG-PLGA was found to enhance the hydrophilicity of the MPs, promote cell spreading and adhesion proteins (focal adhesion kinase and Paxillin) mRNA expressions of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, significantly improving the cell affinity. The results also demonstrated that RBC-like MPs exhibited excellent magnetic and enhanced luminescent properties, making them a promising candidate for various biomedical applications, including drug delivery systems, magnetic targeting, bio-imaging, and fluorescent tracing.

Automated summary

The incidence of cancer and other diseases is increasing, posing a serious threat to human health. Drug delivery systems using bionic red blood cell-like microparticles as drug carriers have been extensively studied. However, current methods of preparing these microparticles are complex, and their cell affinity and therapeutic effect are unsatisfactory when prepared using simple electrospray.