Stimuli-responsive Biocompatible Polymeric Fragmentated Nanotubes for the Controlled Drug Delivery in Cancer Treatment
Guofang Chen, St John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry
An important prerequisite for the successful controlled drug delivery system is the ability to transport enough drug molecules with “zero release” to the targeted site and release them in a controlled manner at the targeted site. To that end novel stimuli-responsive nanotubes were prepared by surface-initiated photopolymerization in cylindrical alumina nanopores followed by sonication-induced scission. Such a nanotube-based drug delivery system is able to (1) enhance drug loading capacity (2) site-specifically transport to the targeted cells (3) facilitate cellular internalization and intracellular trafficking, and (4) sustain drug release on command.