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Formulation and Characterization of Lipogels as a Tunable Delivery Scaffold

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Abstract
Nanomedicines within the clinic commonly utilize lipid-based scaffolds due to their aqueous assembly and non-covalent dual-guest loading capabilities. Nevertheless, poor stability in vivo and premature guest release remains a challenge with these systems. Polymeric nanomaterials are a popular alternative due to their good stability in vivo with controllable guest release. A caveat to polymeric scaffolds though, is the excess synthetic effort involved for non-covalent dual-drug encapsulation. Benefit lies in harnessing advantages of lipid and polymeric materials via lipid-polymer hybrid scaffold. Such materials have promise due to their dual-encapsulation and dual-stimuli-sensitive characteristics. The need to better understand these materials led us to formulate a lipid coated polymer gel or lipogel (LG). Herein we formulated a new LG scaffold and established methods to characterize its formation, purification, dual-guest encapsulation, and stability. Further analysis confirmed LGs were dual-stimuli-sensitive and non-toxic with controllable intracellular uptake profile, which highlighted their potential for parenteral administration. Initial monitoring of LG variant stability under oral administration conditions was also done to display its versatility and expand our material scope. Overall the simplicity of formation, dual-guest encapsulation, dual-stimuli-sensitivity, and tunable core/shell properties of LGs highlight their potential as a nanotherapeutic delivery scaffold.
Type
Dissertation (Open Access)
Date
2018
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