A block copolymer micelle template for synthesis of hollow calcium phosphate nanospheres with excellent biocompatibility

[[abstract]]We report synthesis of hollow calcium phosphate (CaP) nanospheres with high surface area by using block copolymer micelles as templates. The obtained CaP nanospheres exhibit very high biocompatibility, showing great promise for intracellular bio-applications in future

pH-responsive polymeric micelles with core-shell-corona architectures as intracellular anti-cancer drug carriers

[[abstract]]Polymeric micelles with core-shell-corona nanoarchitecture were designed for intracellular therapeutic anti-cancer drug carriers. Poly(styrene-b-acrylic acid-b-ethylene glycol) (PS-b-PAA-b-PEG) asymmetric triblock copolymer underwent self-assembly in aqueous solution to form spherical micelles with hydrophobic PS core, anionic PAA shell and hydrophilic PEG corona. The anti-cancer drug (doxorubicin, DOX) was successfully incorporated into the polymeric micelles. The in vitro release experiment confirmed that the release of DOX from the micelles was inhibited at pH 7.4. In contrast, an accelerated release of DOX was observed at mildly acidic conditions such as pH 4.5. The excellent biocompatibility of our PS-b-PAA-b-PEG-based micelles made the synthesized nano-carrier best suited for the delivery of anti-cancer drugs

Functionalized magnetic iron oxide/alginate core-shell nanoparticles for targeting hyperthermia

Shih-Hsiang Liao,1 Chia-Hung Liu,2 Bishnu Prasad Bastakoti,3 Norihiro Suzuki,7 Yung Chang,4 Yusuke Yamauchi,3 Feng-Huei Lin,5,6 Kevin C-W Wu1,6 1Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University No 1, Taipei, 2Department of Urology, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan; 3National Institute for Materials Science, Ibaraki, Japan; 4R&D Center for Membrane Technology and Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyua, 5Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University No 1, Taipei City, 6Division of Medical Engineering Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan, 7International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan Abstract: Hyperthermia is one of the promising treatments for cancer therapy. However, the development of a magnetic fluid agent that can selectively target a tumor and efficiently elevate temperature while exhibiting excellent biocompatibility still remains challenging. Here a new core-shell nanostructure consisting of inorganic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles as the core, organic alginate as the shell, and cell-targeting ligands (ie, D-galactosamine) decorated on the outer surface (denoted as Fe3O4@Alg-GA nanoparticles) was prepared using a combination of a pre-gel method and coprecipitation in aqueous solution. After treatment with an AC magnetic field, the results indicate that Fe3O4@Alg-GA nanoparticles had excellent hyperthermic efficacy in a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2) owing to enhanced cellular uptake, and show great potential as therapeutic agents for future in vivo drug delivery systems. Keywords: hyperthermia, iron oxide, alginate, pre-gel, targeting&nbsp