Robust PEGylated hyaluronic acid nanoparticles as the carrier of doxorubicin: Mineralization and its effect on tumor targetability in vivo

The in vivo stability and tumor targetability of self-assembled polymeric nanoparticles are crucial for effective drug delivery. In this study, to develop biostable nanoparticles with high tumor targetability, poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (PEG-HANPs) were mineralized through controlled deposition of inorganic calcium and phosphate ions on the nanoparticular shell via a sequential addition method. The resulting nanoparticles (M-PEG-HANPs) had a smaller size (153.7 +/- 4.5 nm) than bare PEG-HANPs (265.1 +/- 9.5 nm), implying that mineralization allows the formation of compact nanoparticles. Interestingly, when the mineralized nanoparticles were exposed to acidic buffer conditions (