Water-based nanoparticulate polymeric system for protein delivery

This article features a new production technology for nanoparticles compris ed of multicomponent polymeric complexes that are candidates for delivery v ehicles of biological molecules such as proteins and drugs. Biocompatible a nd mostly natural polymers are fabricated into thermodynamically stable nan oparticles insoluble in water and buffered media, in the absence of organic solvents, using two types of processing: batch and continuous. Careful cho ice of construction materials and the superposition of several interacting principles during their production allow for the customization of the physi cochemical properties of the structures. Detailed experiments in batch and continuous systems allowed time-dependent stoichiometric characterization o f the production process and an understanding of fundamental assembly princ iples of such supramolecular structures. Continuous-flow production is show n to provide more consistent data in terms of product quality and consisten cy, with further possibility of process development and commercialization. The development of nanoparticles using the described methodology is expecte d to lead to a flexible nanoparticle drug delivery system for medical appli cations, which has particular bearing to the slow release of drugs, antigen s (for vaccine design), and genes (for gene therapy). Several chemistries o f particles are presented, (C) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.