Product Description
As an alternative to the years of hard work and luck nescessary to obtain a highly selective small molecule drug, a delivery system properly tailored to carrying potent antitumor drugs can be used. In the mid-1970s, Ringsdorf, a polymer chemist, proposed covalently attaching chemotherapeutic agents to water soluble synthetic polymers for the first time.
Advantages of using polymers for delivering chemotherapeutic agents:
- Increased solubility and stability of hydrophobic drugs.
- More drug delivered to the tumor tissue.
- Enhanced tumor specificity by the addition of a targeting residue.
- Fewer undesirable side effects and reduced frequency of dosing.
CellMosaic® helps biopharmaceutical companies develop target-specific small molecule drug conjugates using these classical polymers. Human albumin (HA), polyglutamic acid (PGA), N-hydroxymethyl methacrylamide copolymer (HPMA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), and PEG have been widely tested.
Case Studies:
- Loading hydrophobic drugs onto a hydrophilic polymer at CellMosaic® (shown below).
- Challenge: Very hydrophobic small molecule drugs. The drug has serveral OH groups that may interfere with the conjugation. The loading capacity onto the polymer needs to be as high as 20% (w/w).
- Modification strategies for small drugs: Small drugs were first modified site-specifically with a single reactive amine group.
- Result: 20% drugs are loaded onto the polymer (w/w) without any precipitation in water. The procedure is easy to scale up.
