Mthulisi Khuphe
University of Leeds,UK
Title: Biodegradable drug delivery vehicles produced by controlled ring-opening polymerisations
Biography
Biography: Mthulisi Khuphe
Abstract
Polymers are often employed as drug carriers to provide protection to encapsulated therapeutic molecules against premature metabolism and clearance in vivo. Proteolytic enzymes may be exploited to trigger the swelling and/or degradation of (poly)peptide-containing carrier vehicles, while reduced environmental pH may be exploited to trigger the hydrolysis of ester linkages in (poly)ester-containing carrier vehicles, resulting in controlled payload release, on-demand. We report the creation of several biodegradable nanomaterials from the n-carboxyanhydride ring-opening polymerisation (NCA ROP) and o-carboxyanhydride ring-opening polymerisation (OCA ROP). Cyclic monomers have been obtained by converting selected alpha amino acids into their corresponding carboxyanhydrides. Subsequently, ROPs have been employed to covert the cyclic monomers into a range of delivery vehicles, including monodisperse (nano) particles, chemical hydrogels and vegetable oil-based organogels, that selectively release encapsulated payload molecules upon interaction with acidic environmental pH and/or enzymes that are over-expressed at particular disease sites