Polymers in therapeutic delivery

The delivery of genes and drugs remains an active research area, with new challenges arising from the need to deliver specialized cargo, including antibodies, peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides and the need of reaching desired release profiles. Polymer-based systems hold great promise, as polymers can be designed and modified to meet new challenges. Frontline investigators describe polymer systems, such as polyethylenimine, poly(thioether anhydrides), stimuli-responsive hydrogels, and metal-organic nanomaterials, to deliver specific therapeutics, such as genetic materials and anticancer drugs, in controlled manners. Polymer chemists, pharmaceutical scientists, material chemists, and other researchers will find this collection valuable for their research.

Preface Chapter 1. A Polymer Physics Perspective on Why PEI Is an Effective Nonviral Gene Delivery Vector, Caleb Gallops, Jesse Ziebarth, and Yongmei Wang Chapter 2. Comparison of In Vitro Performances of Nanorod and Nanofiber Polyplexes Prepared from Plasmid DNA and Poly(L-lysine) Terminally Bearing Multi-Arm PEG, Ryuta Aono, Kenta Nomura, Eiji Yuba, and Atsushi Harada Chapter 3. A Novel Polysaccharide Carrier for Targeted Delivery of Therapeutic Oligonucleotides to ?-Glucan Receptors, Noriko Miyamoto, Shinichi Mochizuki, Nobuaki Fujiwara, Hiroto Izumi, and Kazuo Sakurai Chapter 4. Sustained Drug-Releasing Systems Using Temperature-Responsive Injectable Polymers Containing Liposomes, Yuta Yoshizaki, Hiroki Yamamoto, Akinori Kuzuya, and Yuichi Ohya Chapter 5. Design of Stimuli-Responsive Polyampholytes and Their Transformation into Micro-Hydrogels for Drug Delivery, Robin Rajan, Nathapong Pangkom, and Kazuaki Matsumura Chapter 6. Cellular Delivery of Hoechst 33342 Anticancer Drug from Crosslinked Poly(thioether anhydrides): A Cytotoxicity and Efficacy Study, Halimatu S. Mohammed, Damien S. K. Samways, and Devon A. Shipp Chapter 7. Metal-Organic Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery, Chung-Hui Huang, Pengyu Chen, X. Michael Liu, and Feng Li Editors' Biographies Author Index Subject Index