ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the medical
profession by improving on traditional drug delivery methods
and transforming how disease and injury are currently diagnosed,
monitored, and treated. The effective delivery of small-molecule
drugs, peptides, and proteins to a site of disease or injury has
faced considerable barriers in the past. These include premature
clearance from the body, off-site toxicity, and poor bioavailability or
pharmacokinetics. Nanoparticles can be used to help improve these
characteristics by aiding delivery of therapeutics that otherwise
show little efficacy without assisted delivery. This chapter contains
two separate yet highly related sections. The first section will
provide a review and introduction to the field of nanoparticles
developed for drug delivery. This introduction will cover a range
of different nanoparticle formulations and their associated merits
and pitfalls. The second portion will provide an insight into some
of our research on the development and characterization of a
multifunctional poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) nanoparticle
system designed for therapeutic delivery. Here we show this multi-
functional nanoparticle system and its ability to effectively deliver
a therapeutic peptide designed to modulate L-type calcium channel
activity following cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. These results
have broad applicability beyond the treatment of this injury into a
range of disease and injury sites that require rapid cellular delivery
of an appropriate therapeutic payload. This nanoparticle system
provides sound proof-of-concept for peptide delivery ex vivo. With
further testing it has the potential to change how we currently treat
one of the major contributors to cardiac failure.
