Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a multiple-compartment gel capsule that could be used to simultaneously deliver drugs of different types. The researchers used a simple "one-pot" method to prepare the hydrogel capsules, which measure less than one micron.
The capsule's structure -- hollow except for polymer chains tethered to the interior of the shell -- provides spatially-segregated compartments that make it a good candidate for multi-drug encapsulation and release strategies. The microcapsule could be used to simultaneously deliver distinct drugs by filling the core of the capsule with hydrophilic drugs and trapping hydrophobic drugs within nanoparticles assembled from the polymer chains.
"We have demonstrated that we can make a fairly complex multi-component delivery vehicle using a relatively straightforward and scalable synthesis," said L. Andrew Lyon, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. "Additional research will need to be conducted to determine how they would best be loaded, delivered and triggered to release the drugs."
Details of the microcapsule synthesis procedure were published online on July 5, 2011 in the journal Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
Lyon and Xiaobo Hu, a former visiting scholar at Georgia Tech, created the microcapsules. As a graduate student at the Research Institute of Materials Science at the South China University of Technology, Hu is co-advised by Lyon and Zhen Tong of the South China University of Technology. Funding for this research was provided to Hu by the China Scholarship Council.
The researchers began the two-step, one-pot synthesis procedure by forming core particles from a temperature-sensitive polymer called poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). To create a dissolvable core, they formed polymer chains from the particles without a cross-linking agent. This resulted in an aggregated collection of polymer
'/>"/>
| Contact: Abby Robinson abby@innovate.gatech.edu 404-385-3364 Georgia Institute of Technology Research News Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. UA engineering college lands national support for equipment used in unique research
2. Unique gene combinations control tropical maize response to day lengths
3. Through unique eyes, box jellyfish look out to the world above the water
4. Species unique to single island should not be rare there
5. Unique frog helps amphibian conservation efforts
6. Even in a crowd, you remain unique, UCLA life scientists report
7. Single-cell marine predators unique survival mechanisms revealed: UBC research
8. Unique needs and outcomes of pregnant women with breast cancer identified
9. Snakes on a rope: Researchers take a unique look at the climbing abilities of boa constrictors
10. New strain of high-runner rats uniquely resistant to disease -- all disease!
11. Unique database of cancer -- designed to personalize treatment -- is launched
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |