Rational design of "heat seeking" drug loaded polypeptide nanoparticles that thermally target solid tumors.

ABSTRACT: This paper demonstrates the first example of targeting a solid tumor that is externally heated to 42 °C by "heat seeking" drug-loaded polypeptide nanoparticles. These nanoparticles consist of a thermally responsive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) conjugated to multiple copies of a hydrophobic cancer drug. To rationally design drug-loaded nanoparticles that exhibit thermal responsiveness in the narrow temperature range between 37 and 42 °C, an analytical model was developed that relates ELP composition and chain length to the nanoparticle phase transition temperature. Suitable candidates were designed based on the predictions of the model and tested in vivo by intravital confocal fluorescence microscopy of solid tumors, which revealed that the nanoparticles aggregate in the vasculature of tu

SUBMITTER: McDaniel JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4025578 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature