Development of Environmentally-responsive Polymer Micelles Comprising of Molecular Assembly beta-Glucans with Physiological Activities and Their Medical Evolution

壳聚糖、可得聚糖等β-葡聚糖具有有效的生理活性。然而，对于它们的β-葡聚糖的实际使用来说，存在着在中性水中不溶的显著缺点。为了开发有希望的医用纳米材料作为药物载体，其β-葡聚糖参与克服这一缺点，我们计划将其β-葡聚糖与亲水性和生物相容的聚合物、聚乙二醇和温度敏感型聚(N-异丙基丙烯酰胺)进行接枝(G)和嵌段(B)型共聚。合成了一些可溶于中性水溶液的g-型和b型共聚物，并与碘进行分子组装络合，得到了尺寸约为50-100 nm的环境友好型纳米粒子，其内部聚集态的核中含有碘。因此，由β-葡聚糖和碘组成的纳米粒子有望成为一种很有前途的药物载体。

Beta-glucans such as chitosan and curdlan have an effective physiological activity. However, a significant drawback of insolubility in neutral water exists for the practical use of their beta-glucans. In order to develop promising medical-nanomaterials working as drug carrier with their beta-glucans involved in overcoming the drawback, we have intended the graft (g) and block (b) type-copolymerization of their beta-glucans with hydrophilic and biocompatible polymers, polyethylene glycol and temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). As a result, some g- and b-type copolymers soluble in neutral aqueous solution were succeed to be synthesized, and then, the molecular assembly complexation of the copolymers with iodine gave rise to assume environmentally-responsive nano-particles with a size of ca. 50-100 nm, containing iodine in internal aggregated-core. Consequently, the nano-particles comprising of the beta-glucans and iodine was expected to be a promising drug-carrier.