Multivalency Beats Complexity: A Study on the Cell Uptake of Carbohydrate Functionalized Nanocarriers to Dendritic Cells

Herein, we report the synthesis of carbohydrate and glycodendron structures for dendritic cell targeting, which were subsequently bound to hydroxyethyl starch (HES) nanocapsules prepared by the inverse miniemulsion technique. The uptake of the carbohydrate-functionalized HES nanocapsules into immature human dendritic cells (hDCs) revealed a strong dependence on the used carbohydrate. A multivalent mannose-terminated dendron was found to be far superior in uptake compared to the structurally more complex oligosaccharides used.

Preparation of Prussian Blue Containing Polymeric Nanocapsule via Interfacial Confined Coordination in Crosslinked Inverse Miniemulsion

This work presents a simple and facile strategy for the creation of Prussian blue containing polymeric nanocapsules. An crosslinked inverse miniemulsion with a formula of water/ K4Fe(CN)6/1,2-bis-(-2-iodoethyl) ethane(BIEE)/ toluene/ PDMAEMA-b-PS stabilizer mixture was prepared as soft template firstly. A crosslinking nanocapsule structure with K4Fe(CN)6 in water core could be achieved by a crosslinking reaction between PDMAEMA-b-PS stabilizers and BIEE. Upon the following addition of FeCl3 ether solution into the oil phase of this inverse miniemulsion, a coordination reaction between two iron salts occurred immediately to form a Prussian blue complex. Due to the solubility limitation of FeCl3 in the oil phase of the miniemulsion, forcing the coordination reaction of K4Fe(CN)6 and FeCl3 mainly occurred at the oil-water interface of the nanocapsules, resulting in a soft polymer/Prussian blue(PB) hybrid nanocapsule.