Joined: 03 Oct 2005 |Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:29 am Post
subject: Nanoparticle Drug-Release in Response to pH Level in
Cells |Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology Use
Polymeric Nanoparticles to Release a Drug in Response to a
Cancer Cell’s pH Environment One of the characteristics that
distinguish a cancer cell from a normal cell is the former’s
acidic interior. Researchers have had some success capitalizing
on this difference by creating nanoparticles that are stable in
the more basic environment of the blood stream and the
extracellular environment but that unfold when they enter the
acidic, or low pH, environment inside a cancer cell, releasing
their drug payload then. Now, a research team from the Georgia
Institute of Technology has created a new polymeric nanoparticle
that not only releases its payload under acidic conditions, but
also disintegrates into small, non-toxic molecules that should
be easily degraded by the body. Reporting their work in the
journal Bioconjugate Chemistry, Niren Mu