Studies of controlled release of drug from Helical Rosette Nanotubes (HRN)

Helical Rosette Nanotubes (HRN) are novel biomimetic self-asssembled supramolecular, whose DNA base-pairs (G & C) can solidify in water under physiological conditions. Due to electrostatic force and interactions effects, a stable stack with an inner channel 11aring in diameter is formed. Because of their hollow structure and amino side chains (lysine), they can either trap or be functionalized with high-density of peptides and drugs. Research has shown that current bone implants (Ti) coated with simple HRN enhance the proliferation of osteoblasts. Thus, using drug-loaded HRN with better efficacy and release rate is crucial to drug delivery, especially when they can be directly injected in damaged cartilage areas along with other tissue healing growth factors and stem cells for anti-inflammatory effects, promoting healthy tissue growth to its maximum capacity. Our experiments study the controlled release of HRN incorporated with dexamethosone and their encapsulation in alginate polymer. Results suggest that HRN increase surface wettability and enhance drug absorption onto glass slide surface. Furthermore, the drug-loaded HRN exhibits a sustainable and prolongs releasing time in the experiments. The polymer incorporated drug-loaded HRN also confirms this trend. Unlike the traditional drug delivery system, properties such as injectability, self-assembly, functional groups of HRN strengthen the binding association between the drug and the delivery agents.