Materials Science and Engineering Program and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (USA).
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Jun 15;54(25):7376-80. doi: 10.1002/anie.201501705. Epub 2015 May 7.
Thermally responsive hydrogels have drawn significant research attention recently because of their simple use as drug carrier at human body temperature. Here we design a hybrid hydrogel that incorporates a hydrophilic polymer, polyethyleneimine (PEI), into the thermally responsive hydrogel poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm), as a general drug carrier model for controlled drug release. In this work, on one hand, PEI modifies the structure and the size of the pores in the PNIPAm hydrogel. On the other hand, PEI plays an important role in tuning the water content in the hydrogel and controls the water release rate of the hydrogel below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), resulting in a tunable release rate of the drugs at human body temperature (37 °C). Different release rates are shown as different amounts of PEI are incorporated. PEI controls the release rate, dependent on the charge characteristics of the drugs. The hydrogel blends described in this work extend the concept of a general drug carrier for loading both positively and negatively charged drugs, as well as the controlled release effect.
温敏水凝胶因其在人体温度下作为药物载体的简单使用而受到了广泛关注。在这里，我们设计了一种混合水凝胶，将亲水性聚合物聚乙烯亚胺（PEI）纳入到温敏水凝胶聚（N-异丙基丙烯酰胺）（PNIPAm）中，作为一种通用的药物载体模型用于控制药物释放。在这项工作中，一方面，PEI 改变了 PNIPAm 水凝胶的结构和孔径大小。另一方面，PEI 在调节水凝胶中的含水量以及控制水凝胶在低临界溶液温度（LCST）以下的水释放速率方面发挥了重要作用，从而实现了在人体温度（37°C）下药物释放速率的可调性。不同的释放速率表现为加入的 PEI 量不同。PEI 通过控制药物的电荷特性来控制释放速率。本工作中描述的水凝胶混合物扩展了通用药物载体的概念，可用于负载带正电荷和带负电荷的药物，以及控制释放效果。
