title: Preparation of pyrenyl-based multifunctional nanocomposites for biomedical applications.
abstract: Nanocomposites are widely used to obtain an accurate diagnosis of, and to provide effective therapy for, a number of diseases, because they can be easily formulated by introducing therapeutic agents (e.g., drugs and genes) and imaging agents (e.g., magnetic nanocrystals). Furthermore, nanocomposites can be developed as all-in-one systems, which enable cancer diagnosis and therapy, as well as the simultaneous monitoring of drug behavior. In this protocol, we describe the synthesis of four pyrenyl-based polymers (pyrenyl polyethylene glycol (Py-PEG), pyrenyl dextran (Py-DEX), pyrenyl hyaluronan (Py-HA) and pyrenyl-conjugated heterofunctional PEG (pyrenyl PEG)) and their subsequent use in the preparation of multifunctional nanocomposites for different applications including multimodal imaging, targeted cancer detection and pH-sensitive drug delivery. Notably, these nanocomposites can be used to simultaneously perform multiple tasks--for example, delivering magnetic particles for early cancer detection by MRI, efficient cataloging of patient groups for personalized therapy and real-time monitoring of disease progress. Starting from the synthesis of pyrenyl-based polymers, this protocol can be completed in ∼15 d.
authors.affiliation: BioNanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.|BioNano Health Guard Research Center, KRIBB, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Kyung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: BioNanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.|BioNano Health Guard Research Center, KRIBB, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.|Nanobiotechnology Major, School of Engineering, University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bong Hyun
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*; D011721:Pyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D011721:Pyrenes