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Toxicity of polymeric drug carriers | 00:34 |
 Often the polymeric drug carriers in the assembled state are more toxic for cells than when in a dissociated state. The reasons of this significant increase of toxicity for the cell when assembled as well as the ways to reduce it are still unknown. Although the increased toxicity is sometimes attributed to the ability of the drug carriers to dissolve membrane lipids in the carrier cores, this remains as a speculative idea. During the contact with cell membranes the drug carriers may suck phospholipids and other constituents of cells into the cores, thus irreversibly damaging them. We investigate this problem with the Self-Consistent Mean Field Theory. The result of our analysis will elucidate the real effect of the aggregate on the cell membrane and give a comprehensive explanation of the increase of the toxicity, thus opening the door to strategies to reduce such toxicity.
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Category: Fields of research |
Views: 2325 |
Added by: drug-delivery
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