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Updated: Jul 31, 2025
Assembly and Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles
Published on: March 2, 2020
Assembly and recognition mechanisms of glycosylated PEGylated polyallylamine phosphate nanoparticles: A fluorescence
Patricia Perez Schmidt1, Tanja Luedtke2, Paolo Moretti3
1Soft Matter Nanotechnology Group, CIC biomaGUNE, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo Miramón 182, 20014 Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, Spain; CNR - ISTM, Nanotechnology Lab., Via G. Fantoli 16/15, Milan, Italy.
Hypothesis:
Modification of polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) with heterobifunctional low molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG) (600 and 1395 Da), and subsequent attachment of mannose, glucose, or lactose sugars to PEG, can lead to formation of polyamine phosphate nanoparticles (PANs) with lectin binding affinity and narrow size distribution.
Experiments:
Size, polydispersity, and internal structure of glycosylated PEGylated PANs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) was used to study the association of labelled glycol-PEGylated PANs. The number of polymer chains forming the nanoparticles was determined from the changes in amplitude of the cross-correlation function of the polymers after formation of the nanoparticles. SAXS and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy were used to investigate the interaction of PANs with lectins: concanavalin A with mannose modified PANs, and jacalin with lactose modified ones.
Findings:
Glyco-PEGylated PANs are highly monodispersed, with diameters of a few tens of nanometers and low charge, and a structure corresponding to spheres with Gaussian chains. FCS shows that the PANs are single chain nanoparticles or formed by two polymer chains. Concanavalin A and jacalin show specific interactions for the glyco-PEGylated PANs with higher affinity than bovine serum albumin.
