Thermo-responsive polymeric system for anti-inflammatory hydrophobic drug elution

Diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis have been widely impacted by the pathogenesis of inflammation. After traditional therapy, most of the time dying cells stimulate inflammatory effects which results the reduction of therapeutic effect and enhances the drug resistance. That is why treatment often requires frequent or continuous high-dosage administration of anti-inflammatory drugs. Efficient delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs to the targeted sites can reduce medical dosage and improve therapeutic effect. In recent years, nanogels have emerged as promising vehicle for delivering and releasing medications to patients as one of the main dimensions of nanomedicine. Nanogel is a polymer-based gel network of a 20-200 nm scale range that allows a high-dosage loading of biological compound through different chemical/physical interactions. In this project a novel thermo responsive polymeric nanogel system has been designed using FDA approved zwitterionic and PEG derivative compounds to encapsulate anti-inflammatory drugs with controlled elution. The loaded medications can be released from the nanogels through changing the polymer network to swell or compress upon activation by microenvironment changes (temperature/pH of the inflammation sites).

Faculty Supervisor:

Ravin Narain

Student:

Partner:

Aspect Biosystems Ltd

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Alberta

Program: