Design Principles for Engineering Ionic Liquid-Gold Nanoparticles for Therapeutic Delivery to the Brain

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology and Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Ionic liquids (ILs) offer tunable properties for advanced therapeutic applications.
• Lack of guidelines hinders IL integration into complex drug formulations.
• Engineering immunoglobulin G (IgG) conjugated to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) requires precise control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose design considerations for engineering IgG-AuNPs using choline-based ILs.
• To leverage ILs for enhanced stability, morphology, and reduced aggregation of AuNPs.
• To demonstrate improved therapeutic delivery across the blood-brain barrier.

Main Methods:

• Systematic selection of IL cations and anions to fine-tune supramolecular assemblies.
• Utilizing circular dichroism spectroscopy to determine thermodynamic parameters and IgG conformational changes.
• Formulating IgG-choline chloride-AuNPs with additives (trehalose, histidine, arginine) for in vivo delivery studies.

Main Results:

• ILs imparted enhanced structural, thermal, and thermodynamic stabilities to AuNPs.
• IL-AuNP formulations exhibited tunable morphologies and reduced aggregation.
• A 7.6-fold increase in in vivo delivery across the blood-brain barrier was achieved compared to traditional formulations.

Conclusions:

• Rational design of IL-AuNP nanocarriers enables precise nanoscale manipulation and versatile structural configurations.
• This approach advances tailored nanocarrier engineering for targeted therapeutic delivery.
• The study broadens the scope of IL applications in biomedicine.