Biocompatible Drug Delivery System for Photo-Triggered Drug Release

As Raphael mentioned in the first post, we would like to post articles, news, and links that we think might be of interest to Biomedical Engineers. Here’s the first one!

This is an interesting article recently published in Biomacromolecules about controlling the delivery of cancer drugs (may require a BU login): http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bm2009125

Happy reading!
Natalia Vieira, Secretary 2011-2012


The synthesis of a photo-triggered biocompatible drug delivery system on the basis of coumarin-functionalized block copolymers is reported. The coumarin-functionalized block copolymers poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(n-butyl methacrylate-co-4-methyl-[7-(methacryloyl)oxyethyloxy]coumarin)) (PEO-b-P(BMA- co-CMA)) were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The micelle–drug conjugates were made by covalent bonding of anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to the coumarin under UV irradiation at wavelength >310 nm. These micelle–drug conjugates possessed spherical morphology with diameters of 70 nm from TEM images. In vitro drug release experiments showed the controlled release of anticancer drug 5-FU from the micelle–drug conjugates under UV irradiation (254 nm). These micelle–drug conjugates also showed excellent biocompatibility by the in vitro cytotoxicity experiments. The results suggest that these micelle–drug conjugates could be a promising candidate for the delivery of anticancer agents with low side effects on normal cells and excellent therapeutic efficacy to cancer cells.

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