Department of Chemistry, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Nanotechnology. 2011 Dec 9;22(49):494011. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/22/49/494011. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
Controlled release of therapeutic agents is important for improving drug efficacy and reducing toxicity. Recently, hydrogels have been used for controlled release applications. While the majority of the previous work focused on releasing the cargo in response to physical stimuli such as temperature, light, electric field, and pH, we aim to trigger cargo release in the presence of small metabolites. In our system a DNA aptamer that can bind to adenosine, AMP, and ATP was used as a linker to attach either DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles or liposomes to DNA-functionalized hydrogels. In the presence of the metabolite, both the nanoparticle and liposome cargos were released. The effect of salt, temperature, target concentration, and drying has been systematically studied. Interestingly, we found that the gel can be completely dried while retaining the DNA linkages and adenosine induced release was still achieved after rehydration. Our work demonstrates that aptamers can be used to control the release of drugs and other materials attached to hydrogels.
治疗剂的控制释放对于提高药效和降低毒性非常重要。最近，水凝胶已被用于控制释放应用。虽然以前的大多数工作都集中在响应物理刺激（如温度、光、电场和 pH 值）释放货物上，但我们旨在在存在小代谢物的情况下触发货物释放。在我们的系统中，使用可以与腺苷、AMP 和 ATP 结合的 DNA 适体作为连接物，将 DNA 功能化的金纳米粒子或脂质体连接到 DNA 功能化的水凝胶上。在代谢物存在的情况下，纳米粒子和脂质体货物都被释放。已经系统地研究了盐、温度、靶浓度和干燥的影响。有趣的是，我们发现凝胶可以完全干燥，同时保持 DNA 连接，并且在重新水合后仍能实现腺苷诱导的释放。我们的工作表明，适体可用于控制与水凝胶相连的药物和其他材料的释放。
