Hydrogen sulfide-releasing micelles for promoting angiogenesis.

Hydrogen sulfide (HS), an important gaseous signalling molecule in the human body, has been shown to be involved in many physiological processes such as angiogenesis. Since the biological activities of HS are known to be significantly affected by the dose and exposure duration, the development of HS delivery systems that enable control of HS release is critical for exploring its therapeutic potential. Here, we prepared polymeric micelles with different HS release profiles, which were prepared from amphiphilic block copolymers consisting of a hydrophilic poly(-acryloyl morpholine) segment and a hydrophobic segment containing HS-releasing anethole dithiolethione (ADT) groups.

Furoxan-Bearing Micelles for Nitric Oxide Delivery.

Furoxans, or 1,2,5-oxadiazole-N-oxides, are a class of nitric oxide (NO)-donating compounds that release NO in response to thiol-containing molecules. In this study, polymeric micelles bearing furoxan moieties are prepared from an amphiphilic block copolymer consisting of a hydrophobic furoxan-bearing block and a hydrophilic poly(N-acryloylmorpholine) block. The block copolymer is prepared using a combination of the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and the copper-catalyzed Huisgen cycloaddition techniques.