Biodegradable Hybrid Stomatocyte Nanomotors for Drug Delivery

Abstract

We report the self-assembly of a biodegradable platinum nanoparticle-loaded stomatocyte nanomotor containing both PEG-b-PCL and PEG-b-PS as a potential candidate for anticancer drug delivery. Well-defined stomatocyte structures could be formed even after incorporation of 50% PEG-b-PCL polymer. Demixing of the two polymers was expected at high percentage of semicrystalline poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), resulting in PCL domain formation onto the membrane due to different properties of two polymers. The biodegradable motor system was further shown to move directionally with speeds up to 39 μm/s by converting chemical fuel, hydrogen peroxide, into mechanical motion as well as rapidly delivering the drug to the targeted cancer cell. Uptake by cancer cells and fast doxorubicin drug release was demonstrated during the degradation of the motor system. Such biodegradable nanomotors provide a convenient and efficient platform for the delivery and controlled release of therapeutic drugs.

Engineering Polymersomes for Diagnostics and Therapy

“…[79] Under the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the introduction of poly(ε-caprolactone) in the system did not affect the velocity of the stomatocytes (i.e., 39 μm/s). Water-soluble doxorubicin was loaded into the lumen of the resulting polymersomes while the platinum nanoparticles were encapsulated in the inner cavity.…”

Enzymatic Micromotors as a Mobile Photosensitizer Platform for Highly Efficient On‐Chip Targeted Antibacteria Photodynamic Therapy

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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) functions when the light-excited photosensitizers transfer energy to oxygen molecules ( 3 O 2 ) to produce cytotoxic singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) that can effectively kill cells or bacteria. [15] So far, researchers have also explored stimuli-responsive materials, [16][17][18][19] biomimetic materials, [20][21][22] and micro-organisms functionalized with nanomaterials [23] as MNMs to precisely transport cargos of drugs, [16,20,23,24] proteins, [18,22,25] and genes [19] in vitro and/or in vivo. Herein, an enzymatic micromotor based on hollow mesoporous SiO 2 (mSiO 2 ) microspheres is constructed as a mobile and highly efficient photosensitizer platform.

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Micro- and nano-motors: the New Generation of Drug Carriers

“…Additionally, different functions like propulsion, manipulation, substance delivery and sensing need to be further explored. Another necessity is to analyze the toxicity of the materials employed for fabrication and, if possible, make them biodegradable as it has been already reported by several groups for some systems [44,45]. The immunoresponse to those materials should also be studied further in more detail.…”

“…Drug release took place at the subcellular level once the nanomotors degraded upon a slight pH change. Moreover these nanomotors were capable of loading future science group www.future-science.com hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic drugs due to their bilayer structure (Table 1) [45]. They were also able to sense their local environment and trigger motion and drug release upon the presence of a reducing agent (glutathione) which cleaved their external PEG shell (Table 1) [46].…”