Hyaluronic acid based nanohydrogels fabricated by microfluidics for the potential targeted release of Imatinib: Characterization and preliminary evaluation of the antiangiogenic effect

Microfluidics is emerging as an innovative technique for the ``on chip'' fabrication of nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. Here, by using an amphiphilic derivative of hyaluronic acid as a starting macromolecule, nanohydrogels loaded with Imatinib were produced by the microfluidic procedure in order to develop an innovative therapeutic tool for the treatment of retinal neovascularization. Both cyRGDC functionalized and nonfunctionalized nanohydrogels were designed and fabricated by using the same technique. The targeting efficiency of the obtained nanosystems was studied in vitro on human retinal pigment epithelial cells (HRPEpiC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), the latter chosen as generic cellular model to assay inhibiting effect on cellular sprouting of Imatinib loaded nanohydrogels. The suitability of microfluidic approach for nanohydrogel production and drug loading was demonstrated. The cyRGDC functionalized nanosystems loaded with Imatinib, showed in vitro an enhanced ability to inhibit HUVEC organization into a capillary like structure.