Analisi dimensionale integrata di nanoparticelle per uso nutraceutico e farmaceutico

Recent discoveries in nanotechnology enabled the introduction of nanomaterials into various fields, included medical field, which developed in this sense as nanomedicine. Materials in the nano size show different properties from their bulk-size in terms of conductivity, strength, surface area to volume ratio and optical properties. Therefore, nanomaterials seem to be incredibly beneficial and applicable as drug delivery systems, biosensors, therapeutic agents, antimicrobials, and tools for biomarker detection or tumor targeting. Since the rise of nanomedicine, the need to study not only the beneficial effects but also the potential adverse effects and toxicity related to the biological responses has arisen. Biological behavior is induced by the intrinsic properties of the material such as shape, size, reactivity and surface composition. Many efforts have been made by regulatory agencies regarding the standardization of an unambiguous vocabulary defining nanomaterials. However, standard protocols and techniques for characterizing nanomaterials are still lacking. This work aims to validate a protocol for nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) technique using standard nanoparticles and comparing the results with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The validated protocol was then applied for measurements of unknown samples of lipid nanoparticles for nutraceutical use. Secondly, NTA was compared with two other characterization techniques, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS), to highlight the differences, strengths and weaknesses among techniques. The data obtained with the NTA technique on standard polystyrene nanoparticles and carbon nanoparticles of different sizes showed satisfactory results in accuracy and precision of size and concentration as instrument parameters were set in the optimal measurement conditions depending on the sample. NTA showed its high resolution in size distribution measurements of complex and bimodal samples in contrast to DLS, which confirmed its low resolution already described in the literature. Moreover, NTA proved to be a more practical and less laborious technique than TRPS. Future work perspectives could aim to study the effects of post-acquisition parameters on NTA results, to analyse more complex samples such as samples containing three or four populations. Furthermore, NTA could be exploited for zeta potential measurements and in fluorescence mode on samples of biological origin.