Externally-Triggered Nanoparticle Composite Membranes for Drug Delivery

Sustained drug release technology has been applied to many medical fields. However, drug release kinetics from devices is usually monotonic over time. To address this limitation, we synthesized externally-triggerable membranes based on the thermoreversible polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PNIPAm) and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Drug flux across the membrane can be turned “on” by applying an external magnetic field, with continuous release rate and good reproducibility over multiple cycles. We examine several membrane design parameters, such as thickness and PNIPAm nanoparticle concentration, and evaluate how they affect drug release characteristics.