title: Multiwalled nanotubes formed by catanionic mixtures of drug amphiphiles.
abstract: Mixing of oppositely charged amphiphilic molecules (catanionic mixing) offers an attractive strategy to produce morphologies different from those formed by individual molecules. We report here on the use of catanionic mixing of anticancer drug amphiphiles to construct multiwalled nanotubes containing a fixed and high drug loading. We found that the molecular mixing ratio, the solvent composition, the overall drug concentrations, as well as the molecular design of the studied amphiphiles are all important experimental parameters contributing to the tubular morphology. We believe these results demonstrate the remarkable potential that anticancer drugs could offer to self-assemble into discrete nanostructures and also provide important insight into the formation mechanism of nanotubes by catanionic mixtures. Our preliminary animal studies reveal that the CPT nanotubes show significantly prolonged retention time in the tumor site after intratumoral injection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering and ‡Institute for NanoBiotechnology, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States.
authors.forename: Yi-An
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Cheetham
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yu-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Yuguo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guanshu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hermida-Merino
authors.forename: Ian W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Hamley
authors.forename: Honggang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D002166:Camptothecin / Q000737:chemistry; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D061848:Optical Imaging; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D012997:Solvents; D002166:Camptothecin
keywords: camptothecin; catanionic mixtures; drug; nanotubes; self-assembly