Development of Multifunctional Polypeptide Amphiphiles as Drug Delivery Vehicles

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该奖项由加州大学洛杉矶分校材料研究部生物材料项目颁发，旨在开发和研究多功能两亲性嵌段共肽，该共肽可以组装成囊泡和乳液载体，具有细胞内药物递送的功能。所提出的共肽设计、合成、开发和测试，以及这些多肽固有的功能和多功能性，将用于创建具有适合药物输送应用特性的多功能载体。本课题的主要挑战是设计和制备具有附加功能的多肽两亲体，而不会对其他功能或物理特性产生不利影响，以获得真正的多功能囊泡和乳液载体。从这些研究中获得的知识将允许在药物的封装和递送中对下游特定用途的载体特性进行微调。在这个项目下训练的学生将在工业工作中（包括制药和材料科学领域）有价值，因为他们将学习使用催化和自组装的聚合物合成的基础知识，细胞培养和药物载体的细胞内运输，以及更多应用领域的材料表征和性能评估。这些pi还将继续他们的学术活动，为研究生和本科生开发生物工程课程和教学，并涉及概念和实验室方法。共肽的设计、合成、开发和测试有望产生具有增强和多功能特性的囊泡，用于药物输送系统。这些囊泡预计具有适当的大小，形状，良好的细胞摄取和稳定性，以及药物输送的货物装载能力。这些研究期望设计和合成改进的药物输送载体对制药工业和人类健康具有广泛的重要性。该提案的学术影响在于为研究生和本科生开发课程和教学工具。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to University of California Los Angeles is to develop and study multifunctional amphiphilic block copolypeptides that can be assembled into vesicle and emulsion vehicles containing functionality for intracellular drug delivery. The proposed copolypeptide design, synthesis, development and testing, as well as the functionality and versatility inherent in these polypeptides will be used to create multifunctional vehicles with properties suitable for drug delivery applications. The key challenge of this proposal is to design and prepare polypeptide amphiphiles with added functions without adversely affecting other functions or physical features, to obtain true multifunctional vesicle and emulsion carriers. The knowledge gained from these studies will allow fine tuning of carrier properties for downstream specific uses in encapsulation and delivery of drugs. Students trained under this program will be valuable in the industrial job force (both pharmaceutical and materials science areas) since they will learn fundamentals of polymer synthesis using catalysis and self-assembly, cell culture and intracellular trafficking of drug carriers, as well as more applied areas of materials characterization and property evaluation. The PIs will also continue their academic activities in developing curricula and teaching in bioengineering for both graduates and undergraduates, and involve concepts and laboratory methods.The proposed design, synthesis, development and testing of copolypeptides are expected to produce vesicles with enhanced and multifunctional properties for drug delivery systems. These vesicles are expected to have adequate size, shape, good cell uptake and stability, and cargo loading capacity for drug delivery. The design and synthesis of improved drug delivery vehicles expected from these studies are of broad importance for the pharmaceutical industry, and for human health in general. The academic impact of the proposal is in developing curricula and teaching tools for graduate and undergraduate students.