Ropivacaine magnetic nanoparticles: An efficient local anesthetic nerve conduction blocker

Ropivacaine (Rop) is one of the commonly used local nerve blocks in clinical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia and it inhibits the stimulation of peripheral nociceptive pain. However, Rop alone is not effective enough to exert a controllable anesthetic effect in patients with peripheral nociceptive pain. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the targeting of the local anesthetic effect of Rop and reduce its potential chronic or acute toxicity. In this study, a novel Rop nanocomposite hydrogel drug, N-isopropylacrylamide-methacrylic acid/ropivacaine magnetic nanoparticles (NIP-MAA/Rop MNPs), was constructed on magnetic iron oxide. The unique pH and temperature response of NIP-MAA can effectively retain magnetic properties, improve the stability and targeting controllability of magnetic nanoparticles, and avoid excessive drug diffusion. Therefore, the NIP-MAA/Rop MNPs is expected to open a new field of vision for the research of clinical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia.