Cyclodextrin-conjugated poly(lactic acid)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (β-CD-PLA-mPEG), a well-defined amphiphilic copolymer, was synthesized by controlled ring-open copolymerization and click coupling reaction, in order to obtain a biocompatible drug delivery system with controlled release profiles. The β-CD-PLA-mPEG copolymer could self-assemble in aqueous solution to form micelles with a mean par...

Cytochrome P450s are heme-containing monooxygenases that require electron transfer proteins for their catalytic activities. They prefer hydrophobic compounds as substrates and it is, therefore, desirable to perform their reactions in non-aqueous media. Reversed micelles can stably encapsulate proteins in nano-scaled water pools in organic solvents. However, in the reversed micellar system, when...

The solution-phase self-assembly or "polymerization" of discrete colloidal building blocks, such as "patchy" nanoparticles and multicompartment micelles, is attracting growing attention with respect to the creation of complex hierarchical materials. This approach represents a versatile method with which to transfer functionality at the molecular level to the nano- and microscale, and is often a...

The high incidence of bacterial infection and the growing resistance of bacteria to conventional antibiotics have resulted in the strong need for the development of new generation of antibiotics. Nano-sized particles have been considered as novel antibacterial agents with high surface area and high reactivity. The overall antibacterial properties of antimicrobial nanostructures can be significa...

BACKGROUND Despite the promising anticancer efficacy observed in preclinical studies, paclitaxel and tanespimycin (17-AAG) combination therapy has yielded meager responses in a phase I clinical trial. One serious problem associated with paclitaxel/17-AAG combination therapy is the employment of large quantities of toxic organic surfactants and solvents for drug solubilization. The goal of this ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the in vivo effects of a new smart polymer loaded with dexamethasone on inflamed rabbit eye. MATERIALS AND METHODS Polymeric micelles were prepared using N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM), vinyl pyrrolidone (VP), and methacrylate (MAA) as monomers in the presence of N,N-methylene bis-acrylamide (MBA) and triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (TEGDM...

For applications of block copolymer mixtures as potential new nano-vehicles for delivery, understanding the components mixing characteristics are of special interest. In our previous study [1], we showed that interactions between a biological charged diblock-copolymer like protein, betacasein, and a synthetic uncharged synthetic triblock copolymer, Lutrol F-127, lead to the formation of mixed m...

Brittle epoxy based thermosets can be made tougher by introducing structural inhomogeneities at the micro- or nanoscale. In that respect, nano vesicles and worm-like micelles from self-assembling blockcopolymers have been shown to be very effective. This paper describes the curing kinetics and morphology of an epoxy composed of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and 4,4'-methylenedianiline...

Engineering of the cellular microenvironment has become a valuable means to guide cellular activities such as spreading, motility, differentiation, proliferation, or apoptosis. This chapter summarizes recent approaches to surface patterning such as topography and chemical patterning from the micrometer to the nanometer scale, and illustrates their application to cellular studies. Particular att...

Objective(s): Micelles have been studied as nanoparticulate drug delivery systems for improving the topical ocular delivery of hydrophobic drugs. The objective of this study was to develop and characterize dexamethasone-loaded polycaprolactone-polyethylene glycol-polycaprolactone (PCL-PEG-PCL) micelles to improve patient compliance and enhance the ocular bioavailability of poorly water-soluble ...