Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
d
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Figure 6.5
Drug-delivery approaches with molecular gels. (A) Doping a therapeutic
within a molecular gel. (B) Therapeutic molecular gel.
localised drug delivery relative to other forms of drug-delivery methods as they
can be tuned/designed to respond in specific biological environments.
6.3.1.1 Passive In Vivo Drug Delivery using Molecular Gels
The simplest methodology for the delivery of drugs using molecular gels is
passively, i.e. diffusion and/or degradation of the gel system. The following
examples provide a glimpse into the research that has been done with passive
molecular gel therapeutic delivery systems.
Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to inhibit neointimal hyperplasia
(the narrowing of arteries), after arterial interventions in several animal models.
Kapadia and coworkers
32
created a molecular gel-based delivery system for NO
for perivascular application.
Gels were formed by mixing equal volumes of the peptide amphiphile 6.2 in
ultrapure water, diazeniumdiolate in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and
heparin in PBS (Chart 6.2).
