[Construction of the brain-targeting drug carrier through imprinting of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α7].

In this study, a novel brain-targeting carrier was made via conformational epitope imprinting. Acrylamide and N,N '-methylene bisacrylamide was used as carrier materials and the N-terminal epitope of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α7 (nAchR α7) was tested as a template molecule, and the polymer nanoparticles were obtained after polymerization and template removal. The nanoparticles were investigated by particle size analyzer and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Their targeting capabilities were investigated with a cell uptake assay in vitro and fluorescence imaging in vivo. The results suggest that the nanoparticles had a small particle size (42.1 ± 4.3 nm) with a homogeneous distribution, and good targeting properties in vitro and in vivo. We have made the molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles with brain targeting capability, which represents a new tool in the treatment of brain diseases.