P(MMA‐co‐AA) Nanoparticles Loaded with Clioquinol and Functionalized with TAT Peptide

Polymer nanoparticles produced through miniemulsion polymerizations can be used for design of drug encapsulation and targeted delivery systems. Particularly, the immobilization of functional groups on the surfaces of polymeric nanoparticles enables the development of targeted delivery systems, intended for particle absorption by specific body tissues, favoring the treatment of diseases. For this reason, in the present work poly(methyl methacrylate‐co‐acrylic acid) (P(MMA‐co‐AA)) nanoparticles loaded with clioquinol are prepared through in situ miniemulsion polymerizations for the first time. Besides, nanoparticles are functionalized with a cell‐penetrating trans‐activating transcriptor (TAT) peptide for the first time, to show that incorporation of carboxylic groups (from acrylic acid (AA)) on the particle surfaces provides an effective route for functionalization of nanoparticles with biomolecules. Particularly, it is shown that spherical particles with average sizes between 60 and 100 nm and zeta potential of −50 mV are produced and that the TAT peptide is successfully immobilized onto the particle surfaces. Besides, it is also shown that the clioquinol encapsulation efficiency is equal to 97%. In vitro tests show that 50% of the initial load of clioquinol is released after 9 h of test.