pH Responsiveness of hydrogels formed by telechelic polyampholytes.

We investigate the influence of pH on the rheological and structural properties of hydrogels formed by hydrophobic association of the sticky ends of the triblock terpolymer poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-P(DEA-co-MAA)-b-PMMA). The middle block is a weak polyampholyte having a pH dependent charge density and sign, which enables tuning of the rheological and structural properties by pH variation. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) studies of solutions in DO at 0.

Quantifying the Interactions in the Aggregation of Thermoresponsive Polymers: The Effect of Cononsolvency.

The aggregation kinetics of thermoresponsive core-shell micelles with a poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) shell in pure water or in mixtures of water with the cosolvents methanol or ethanol at mole fractions of 5% is investigated during a temperature jump across the respective cloud point. Characteristically, these mixtures give rise to cononsolvency behavior. At the cloud point, aggregates are formed, and their growth is followed with time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering.

Hydrolytically degradable polymer micelles for drug delivery: a SAXS/SANS kinetic study.

We report kinetic studies of therapeutically highly potent polymer-drug conjugates consisting of amphiphilic N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA)-based copolymers bearing the anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox). Highly hydrophobic cholesterol moieties as well as the drug were attached to the polymer backbone by a pH-sensitive hydrazone bond. Moreover, the structure of the spacer between the polymer carrier and the cholesterol moiety differed in order to influence the release rate of the hydrophobic moiety, and thus the disintegration of the high-molecular-weight micellar nanoparticle structure.

Macromolecular HPMA-based nanoparticles with cholesterol for solid-tumor targeting: detailed study of the inner structure of a highly efficient drug delivery system.

We report a rigorous investigation into the detailed structure of nanoparticles already shown to be successful drug delivery nanocarriers. The basic structure of the drug conjugates consists of an N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer bearing the anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) bound via a pH-sensitive hydrazone bond and a defined amount of cholesterol moieties that vary in hydrophobicity. The results show that size, anisotropy, and aggregation number N(aggr) of the nanoparticles grows with increasing cholesterol content.