COLL 302 |
| Paul Dalhaimer1, Adam J Engler1, Frank S. Bates2, Jeffrey A. Engler3, and Dennis E. Discher4. (1) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 112 Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6391, (2) Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (3) Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Alabama, (4) Dept. Chemical & Biomolecular Eng'g, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
| Worm micelles assembled from diblock copolymers have shown to be remarkably stable in aqueous media. By shearing during self-assembly or by sonicating, worms can be formed that are the same length (~1ìm) as filamentous phages. Replacing the DNA cargo of a typical phage, the hydrophobic cores of the worms can be loaded with various drugs including anti-cancer agents such as taxol, etoposide, etc. Worms prove stable in plasma at 37 C and in the presence of phagocytes for at least 4 days. To facilitate the binding of worms to tumor cells, PEO chains are being chemically modified to bind via novel ligands to various tumor markers such as human transferrin receptors, which are known to be upregulated on tumor cells. For transferrin targeting, the peptide attached to the PEO end is small (13 aa) and does not present problems associated with large molecular weight proteins. Cooperative binding to the cell along the entire length of the ~1 ìm worm micelles should dramatically improve specificity which is often a problem in targeted delivery. |
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Bio-Colloids
8:30 AM-10:30 AM, Tuesday, March 30, 2004 Marriott -- Orange County 3, Oral
Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry |