The research group of Associate Professor Yoshihiko Murakami, Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, has succeeded in developing a gel that can freely release multiple drugs at different speeds.
In drug treatment of cancer, the combined use of multiple anticancer drugs and adjuvants usually increases the efficacy of the drug and reduces side effects.As the types of drugs used increase, the drug administration schedule becomes more complicated.In addition, even in general home-based medication, it will be extremely important in the future aging society to follow the dosing schedule of multiple drugs and not forget to take them.
The research group focused on a structure called micelles, which is used as a drug carrier (a container for carrying drugs in the body) and in which a large number of molecules are aggregated by intramolecular force.I got the original idea of immobilizing the drug carrier inside the gel.A gel is a solidified colloidal solution that is in a semi-solid or solid state, and is a jelly in a narrow sense.This time, we succeeded in developing a gel that can freely control the release behavior of multiple substances by immobilizing micelles with different substance release rates inside the gel.We also succeeded in observing how multiple substances are released from the gel with a fluorescence microscope.
Since it is possible to form a gel within a few seconds simply by mixing a polymer (linear) and micelles, it becomes easier to form a therapeutic gel in the body, and a new patient-friendly cancer treatment method can be realized. There is sex.In addition to gels, multiple polymer micelles are immobilized in a patch material to be attached to the skin to realize a gel-like sheet that is easy for the elderly to use and releases multiple drugs according to the dosing schedule. There is a possibility.In the future, he plans to make gels using various drugs such as anticancer drugs and evaluate their therapeutic effects.
