DNA Nanostructures as Smart Drug-Delivery Vehicles and Molecular Devices

Molecular machines drive smart drug delivery.

mechanical stress. The diameters of the pores can be tuned between 2 and 10 nm to allow for different drug loadings. Compared with traditional oral or injectable drugs, these meso­ porous nanoparticles can enhance bioavailabil­ ity, improve therapeutic efficacy and minimize side effects [4]. At present, the key challenge in developing mesoporous nanoparticle­based DDS is designing the structure...

Polymeric micelles as drug delivery vehicles

Nerve guidance channels as drug delivery vehicles.

Nerve guidance channels (NGCs) have been shown to facilitate regeneration after transection injury to the peripheral nerve or spinal cord. Various therapeutic molecules, including neurotrophic factors, have improved regeneration and functional recovery after injury when combined with NGCs; however, their impact has not been maximized partly due to the lack of an appropriate drug delivery system...

Self-assembled DNA Nanostructures and DNA Devices

This chapter overviews the past and current state of the emerging research area in the field of nanoscience that make use of synthetic DNA to self-assemble into DNA nanostructures and to make operational molecular-scale devices. Recently there have been a series of quite astonishing experimental results which have taken the technology from a state of intriguing possibilities into demonstrated c...

Novel platinum(II)-based anticancer complexes and molecular hosts as their drug delivery vehicles.

Platinum(II)-based DNA intercalators where the intercalating ligand is 1,10-phenanthroline or a phenanthroline derivative and where the ancillary ligand is either achiral (e.g. ethylenediamine) or chiral (e.g. diaminocyclohexane) show a range of cytotoxicities with a defined structure-activity relationship. The most cytotoxic are those that contain methylated-phenanthroline ligands and 1S,2S-di...