396729 Targeted Drug Delivery with Peptoid- Based Nanospheres

Monday, November 17, 2014
Galleria Exhibit Hall (Hilton Atlanta)
Kaylee Smith, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR and Shannon L. Servoss, Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR

Although medicinal technology has advanced greatly over the last several decades, many drugs have negative side effects. Undesirable side effects could be significantly reduced if non-systemic drug delivery systems were used because diseased cells would be harmed at a higher rate than healthy cells.  One possible improved delivery system is peptoid nanospheres. These nanospheres can be linked to molecules engineered to target diseased cells. This research project is focused on designing peptoids to form nanospheres in solution. Four specific peptoids were initially synthesized because they were previously shown to form nanospheres of the appropriate size when dried on a solid substrate. After synthesis and purification, the peptoids were dissolved in a 4 to 1 solution of methanol and water for the remaining test. Circular dichroism was used to determine that all the peptoids were helical. Then scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that one of the four peptoids formed spheres when dried on a silicon chip. After (SEM), dynamic light scattering was used to determine that two of the four peptoids were possibly forming spheres. These two peptoids were frozen in solution and viewed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). One of the two spheres showed sphere formation when viewed using TEM. Further analysis will be conducted to determine the size of the spheres formed. Once the testing is complete on these peptoids, more peptoids will be designed to form spheres of the appropriate size. When designing these peptoids, biocompatibility and cell specificity will be considered. The new peptoids will be synthesized and tested in the same manner as the original peptoids.

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