Biosurfactant stabilized nanoemulsions as multifunctional magnetically targeted delivery vehicles

Nanoemulsions have been widely used for pharmaceutic applications. However, there remains a significant challenge to functionalize available pharmaceutical surfactants with targeting or reporter moieties to generate next-generation drug delivery systems. Herein, a designed biosurfactant platform technology, based on our library of -helical peptide AM1 derivatives, was used to prepare multifunctional magnetic nanoemulsion drug delivery systems. Key factors such as electrostatic and steric stabilization of the nanoemulsions were determined using this peptide library. Stabilization of the nanoemulsion was achieved by controlled and tunable loading of PEG-functionalized biosurfactant at the oil-water interface. A model drug and iron oxide nanoparticles were incorporated into the oil core to prepare multifunctional nanoemulsions. In vitro cell uptake experiments using an external magnetic field demonstrated controlled rapid uptake of iron oxide loaded nanoemulsions by SKOV3 cancer and RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. SKOV3 cells demonstrated a slower rate of uptake under a magnetic field when compared to RAW 264.7 cells. This work demonstrates a highly adaptable hierarchical nanoemulsion system that can provide a platform to develop effective multifunctional nanomedicines and tools for biomedical insights. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=143 SRC="FIGDIR/small/568750v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (24K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@31c3f2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1376aecorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14cb0aeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e37a6e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG