 |
 |
| Back Issues |
|
|
|
|
ACS Members can sign up to receive C&EN e-mail newsletter.  |
|
|
 Join ACS |
|
|||||||||
|
DRUG DELIVERY
|
|||||||||
|
Fluorescent micelles are distributed in several cytoplasmic compartments
Pharmacology professor Dusica Maysinger, chemistry professor Adi Eisenberg, and coworkers at McGill University in Montreal use fluorescently labeled micelles made from poly(caprolactone) and poly(ethylene oxide) to determine the distribution of micelles within cells [Science, 300, 615 (2003)]. They find that these fluorescent micelles distribute themselves within several cytoplasmic compartments, including the Golgi ap- paratus and mitochondria. "The key issue is that nothing goes into the nucleus," Maysinger says. "This is different from other micelles, which have been used specifically to target the nucleus for gene delivery." Using a membrane-selective dye, they find that the micelles can alter the distribution of agents in a cell. By itself, the dye is confined to the plasma membrane or other membranes in the cell. But when the dye is in a micelle, it enters other cytoplasmic compartments. "If the dye is included in the micelle, the entire cell is practically swamped with it," Maysinger says. "Much more of the dye can enter the cell when you have a nanodelivery system." Glen S. Kwon, a pharmacy professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who also studies micelles, says, "The implications are that the potency of an agent may increase and the mechanism of drug action may change in a fundamental way, owing to changes Maysinger and her colleagues have started in vitro and in vivo experiments using therapeutic agents. One of the main things needed, she says, is new polymers that can provide active targeting to specific organelles.
Chemical & Engineering News |
|||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
