Monitoring structural change and drug release of responsive nanoparticles using polarity-sensitive fluorophores

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles hold significant promise for enhancing the delivery of therapeutic agents, particularly peptides and other small biomolecules. To improve the efficiency of these drug delivery systems, accurate knowledge of their structural dynamics, disassembly process, and loading/release behavior is vital. Amongst a myriad of fluorescent probes utilized for this purpose, environmentally responsive fluorophores demonstrate distinctive advantages due to significant changes in fluorescence intensity, lifetime and/or emission wavelength with variation in their environment. In this work, we designed a series of novel multifunctional probe molecules, isoquinoline betai..