Title
Switchable release nano-reservoirs for co-delivery of drugs via a facile micelle-hydrogel composite
Author
Monika Patel, Tatsuo Kaneko, Kazuaki Matsumura
Year
2017
Journal
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
Abstract
Precise and controlled drug delivery systems are required to facilitate effective therapeutics. To address this need, we devised a micelle-hydrogel composite based on amphiphilic polypeptides as a general carrier model for the switchable and controlled release of dual drugs. Two different di-block polypeptides, poly (L-lysine-b-L- phenylalanine) and poly (Lglutamic acid-b-L-phenylalanine) (PGA-PPA), were synthesized to form distinct self-assembling micellar systems that were loaded with curcumin and amphotericin B, respectively, as model drugs. The drug-loaded micellar mixture was crosslinked utilizing the pendant amino groups of the L-lysine side chains via genipin to yield a micelle-hydrogel composite with PGAPPA micelles trapped in the interlinked hydrogel system. This composite allowed for controlled multiphasic drug release and could be effectively tuned to moderate the pace and amount of drug release and be easily regulated to switch the drug release kinetics over a range of simple factors such as change in pH, cross-linking density, and composition.
Instrument
FP-8600
Keywords
Fluorescence, Polymers, Chemical stability, Biochemistry, Materials