Response-triggering stimuli in drug release

This lecture will describe the production of smart nanosystems capable of: (1) carrying antitumor agents selectively to a tumor tissue, and (2) releasing them there thanks to the application of an external stimulus. We use the... [ view full abstract ]

This lecture will describe the production of smart nanosystems capable of: (1) carrying antitumor agents selectively to a tumor tissue, and (2) releasing them there thanks to the application of an external stimulus. We use the term smart because those nanocarriers are able to release the drugs when and where they are needed. The surface of our nanosystems can be decorated with molecules able to recognize specifically tumor cells and to trigger the penetration of nanocarriers into them, like a Trojan horse. The main advantage of developing selective nanocarriers able to accumulate only in tumor tissues are: (1) increased selectivity of the therapy, which allows reducing the cytotoxic dosage; (2) higher control over the administered doses; and (3) the reduction of side effects, because the drugs will not be distributed throughout the whole body. Taking into account that most anticancer drugs are cytotoxic, their release must take place only inside tumor cells. This can be achieved using Chemistry, which provides the necessary tools to prepare stimuli-responsive nanocarriers in which the release of the drug can be controlled and triggered from the outside. In this talk the different stimuli, both internal and external, (4,5,6) that we are using in our research group will be described. We would detail the whole process from the nanomedicines design to their evaluation using different models and their potential translation to the clinic. 

Keywords: nanomedicine, drug carriers, stimuli-responsive system, smart nanosystems.

References

[1] E. Ruiz. A. Baeza. M. Vallet-Regí. ACS Nano 2011, 5(2) 1259-1266

[2] A. Baeza, E. Guisasola, E. Ruiz, M. Vallet-Regí, Chem. Mater., 2012, 24, 517-524.

[3] A. Baeza, E. Guisasola, A. Torres-Pardo, J.M. González-Calbet, G.J. Melen, M. Ramirez, M. Vallet-Regí. Adv. Func. Mater., 2014, 24, 4625–4633.

[4] J.L. Paris, V. Cabañas, M. Manzano, and M. Vallet-Regí, ACS Nano, 2015, 9(11), 11023-11033.

[5] RR Castillo, M Colilla, M Vallet-Regí,Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2016,1-15.

[6] JL Paris, P de la Torre, MV Cabañas, M Manzano, M Grau, AI Flores, M Vallet-Regí, Nanoscale,2017, 9 (17), 5528-5537

MVR acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (Advanced Grant VERDI; ERC-2015-AdG Proposal No. 694160)