Abstract
In recent years, the design of multifunctional polymeric materials in the submicrometer size has been considerably improved due to their wide applications in the fields of biomedicine.
Particularly, hollow polymeric nanospheres and micelles have attracted a great deal of attention due to their wide range of applications. These structures have potential utility in encapsulation and controlled release of various biomolecules such as drugs, peptides and genes. A variety of multi stimuli-responsive nanoparticles have been synthesized that are capable of conformational and chemical changes on receiving an external signal. These changes are accompanied by variations in the physical properties of the polymer. The signal is derived from changes in the materials' environment, such as a change in temperature or in pH.
On the one hand, we have synthesized, characterized and study organic micro- and nano-spheres for magnetic and non magnetic properties. Specifically, pH and thermal responsive hollow microspheres were prepared using the distillation precipitation polymerization method with magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated either in the shell or in the core. These novel hybrid microstructures were characterized with transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, vibrating sample magnetometry, X-ray diffraction and FT-IR spectra.
On the other hand, polymeric micelles seem to be one of the best carriers for delivering hydrophobic drugs.They are formed by the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymer in aqueous solutions and have a spherical shape and a size in nano-range. Anticancer drugs that are incorporated into micelles were shown to improve their stability and efficiency.
Acknowledgement:
This work was supported by scientific programme „IDEAS“, ERC Advanced Grand Nanotherapy. Project Reference: 232959.
References:
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