Amphiphilic nano-assemblies disassembles to deliver
Malar A. Azagarsamy & Sankaran Thayumanavan
Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Delivering drug molecules directly to the diseased sites has become extremely important
to achieve enhanced drug efficacy and reduced side effects. We have developed dendrimer based
amphihilic nanoscale-assemblies that can physically entrap hydrophobic guest molecules in their
interiors and release these entrapped molecules in response to a particular stimuli. Due to these
stimuli responsive characteristics, these assemblies release their entrapped contents only upon
encountering the particular stimuli. Generally these systems respond to stimuli that are very
much abundant in diseased cells as compared normal cells. Here our assemblies are designed to
selectively recognize and release their sequestered contents in response to stimuli like proteins or
enzymes. Utilizing proteins or enzymes for this purpose hold advantages because of their overexpression at the site of diseased cells. We expect that these properties of our systems could be
potentially transformed for selective delivery of water insoluble hydrophobic drugs at diseased
cell sites.