Bioinspired polymers that control intracellular drug delivery

Autor: Niren Murthy, Fiona Black, Paul Bornstein, Allan S. Hoffman, Themis R. Kyriakides, Oliver W. Press, Chantal Lackey, Charles Cheung, Nelson Fausto, Jean S. Campbell, Patrick S. Stayton
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering. 6:205-212
ISSN: 1976-3816
1226-8372
DOI: 10.1007/bf02931981
Popis: One of the important characteristics of biological systems is their ability to change important properties in response to small environmental signals. The molecular mechanisms that biological molecules utilize to sense and respond provide interesting models for the development of “smart” polymeric biomaterials with biomimetic properties. An important example of this is the protein coat of viruses, which contains peptide units that facilitate the trafficking of the virus into the cell via endocytosis, then out of the endosome into the cytoplasm, and from there into the nucleus. We have designed a family of synthetic polymers whose compositions have been designed to mimic specific peptides on viral coats that facilitate endosomal escape. Our biomimetic polymers are responsive to the lowered pH within endosomes, leading to disruption of the endosomal membrane and release of important biomolecular drugs such as DNA, RNA, peptides and proteins to the cytoplasm before they are trafficked to lysosomes and degraded by lysosomal enzymes. In this article, we review our work on the design, synthesis and action of such smart, pH-sensitive polymers.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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