PEGylated crosslinked hyaluronic acid nanoparticles designed through a microfluidic platform for nanomedicine

Aim: A high versatile microfluidic platform is proposed to design, in a one-step strategy, PEGylated crosslinked hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (cHANPs) entrapping a magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent and a dye for multimodal imaging applications. Materials & methods: Clinically relevant biomaterials were shaped in the form of spherical NPs through a microfluidic flow focusing approach. A comparison between post processing and simultaneous PEGylation is reported to evaluate the potentiality of the chemical decoration of the cHANPs in microfluidics. Results: An accurate control of the NPs in terms of size, PEGylation and loading was obtained. Furthermore, in vitro cell viability is reported and their ability to boost the magnetic resonance imaging signal is also confirmed. Conclusion: The proposed microfluidic approach reveals its ability to overcome several limitations of the traditional processes and to become an easy-to-use platform for theranostic applications.