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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The development of delivery systems for the immobilization of nucleic acid cargo molecules is of prime importance due to the need for safe administration of DNA or RNA type of antigens and adjuvants in vaccines. Nanoparticles (NP) in the size range of 20–200 nm have attractive properties as vaccine carriers because they achieve passive targeting of immune cells and can enhance the immune response of a weakly immunogenic antigen via their size. We prepared high capacity 50 nm diameter silica@zirconia NPs with monoclinic/cubic zirconia shell by a green, cheap and up-scalable sol–gel method. We studied the behavior of the particles upon water dialysis and found that the ageing of the zirconia shell is a major determinant of the colloidal stability after transfer into the water due to physisorption of the zirconia starting material on the surface. We determined the optimum conditions for adsorption of DNA building blocks, deoxynucleoside monophosphates (dNMP), the colloidal stability of the resulting NPs and its time dependence. The ligand adsorption was favored by acidic pH, while colloidal stability required neutral-alkaline pH; thus, the optimal pH for the preparation of nucleic acid-modified particles is between 7.0–7.5. The developed silica@zirconia NPs bind as high as 207 mg dNMPs on 1 g of nanocarrier at neutral-physiological pH while maintaining good colloidal stability. We studied the influence of biological buffers and found that while phosphate buffers decrease the loading dramatically, other commonly used buffers, such as HEPES, are compatible with the nanoplatform. We propose the prepared silica@zirconia NPs as promising carriers for nucleic acid-type drug cargos.

Details

Title
Silica@zirconia Core@shell Nanoparticles for Nucleic Acid Building Block Sorption
Author
Nagy, Livia Naszályi 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dhaene, Evert 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Matthias Van Zele 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mihály, Judith 3 ; Klébert, Szilvia 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Varga, Zoltán 3 ; Kövér, Katalin E 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; De Buysser, Klaartje 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Isabel Van Driessche 2 ; Martins, José C 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Fehér, Krisztina 5 

 NMR and Structure Analysis Research Group, Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S4, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium; [email protected] (L.N.N.); [email protected] (J.C.M.) 
 Sol-Gel Centre for Research on Inorganic Powders and Thin Films Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S3, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium; [email protected] (E.D.); [email protected] (M.V.Z.); [email protected] (K.D.B.); [email protected] (I.V.D.) 
 Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (IMEC RCNS ELKH), Magyar Tudósok Körútja 2, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; [email protected] (J.M.); [email protected] (S.K.); [email protected] (Z.V.) 
 Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary; [email protected] 
 Molecular Recognition and Interaction Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences-Eötvös Loránd Research Network at University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary 
First page
2166
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20794991
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2576476517
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.