Polyelectrolyte multilayer nanotubes for drug delivery applications
(2015)
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- Recent advances in medicine and nanotechnology have inspired numerous researches in which nano-engineering is used for the development of optimal drug nanocarrier. Up to now, most efforts in this field have been focused on creating spherical nanocarriers such as liposomes, capsules, or polymersomes. However, anisotropic structures such as nanotubes are currently attracting considerable attention because they offer some promising advantages over isotropic structures. The size of nanotubes can be manipulated in two dimensions, giving the opportunity to construct nanotubes with different aspect ratios. They possess higher surface area compared to nanospheres of identical radius, resulting in more functional groups (antifouling, targeting…) assembled on their surface. Elaborated structures can be achieved by separately and selectively functionalizing the inner and outer surfaces of the nanotubes. The degree of sophistication can still be increased by assembling functional groups on the lateral and basal surfaces of nanotubes. In the present work, layer-by-layer assembly method is combined with template synthesis to fabricate nanotubes composed of a therapeutic agent, namely, ovalbumin protein. A method for quantitative collection and transfer of nanotubes from the template to desired aqueous medium is developed. This method is applicable for collection of any template-synthesized nano-object independent of its nature and dimension and thus, is universal. The ability to functionalize nanotubular drug carriers with antifouling poly(ethylene glycol) chains was also reported. Nanotubes of different chemistry, dimension and surface functionalization are then incubated with dendritic cells to study their interaction with cells. Results showed nanotubes phagocytosis is influenced by nanotubes surface function as well as size and rigidity. Although many challenges are yet to be tackled to reach optimum nanotubular drug carriers, this study might pave the way towards the design and application of multifunctional nanotubular drug delivery systems.
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Saghazadeh, S. (2015). Polyelectrolyte multilayer nanotubes for drug delivery applications. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/187518