Enzyme-instructed formation of antineoplastic hydrogels
- Technology Benefits
- This platform technology improves the safety and efficacy of anti-cancer drugs;Enzyme-instructed self-assembly is a facile strategy for generating the supramolecular hydrogels of molecules that inherently have poor solubility in water;Molecular hydrogels of these hydrophobic drug molecules serve as delivery systems for long term or local delivery of anticancer drugs for chemotherapy;Unlike conventional drug delivery systems, this invention does not require a polymer matrix.
- Detailed Technology Description
- Enzyme-instructed formation of antineoplastic hydrogels
- Countries
- United States
- Application No.
- 8,658,600
- *Abstract
-
Cancer remains a major challenge to the public health. Therefore, there exists a need for more effective cancer treatments. To improve anti-cancer efficacy and to counteract chemotherapeutic side effects, drug carriers that improve the water solubility of anti-cancer drugs and target tumor cells have been developed. However, conventional drug delivery systems require a polymer matrix, which suffers from degradation and low biocompatibility and low drug capacity.
The current invention overcomes these limitations with nanofibers based on enzyme-triggered self-assembly of small molecules, providing a powerful method to create molecular hydrogels of clinically-used therapeutics without compromising their bioactivities. As both the delivery vehicle and the drug itself (taxol), these molecular nanofibers have tremendous potential as anticancer nanomedicines.
- *IP Issue Date
- Feb 25, 2014
- *IP Type
- Utility
- Country/Region
- USA
