| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Friday Sessions |
| Session BI+MN-FrM |
| Session: | Sensors & Fluidics for Biomedical Applications |
| Presenter: | S.L. Ambure, University of Texas at el Paso |
| Authors: | S.L. Ambure, University of Texas at el Paso D. Terreros, Texas Tech Univerity Health Sciences Center T. Xu, University of Texas at el Paso |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Introduction
An important goal of targeted drug delivery is to minimize the exposure of normal tissues to the drugs while maintaining their therapeutic concentration in diseased parts of the body. However, current methodologies are not yet ideal for such goal; therefore, new strategies for targeted drug delivery are needed. A photovoltaic device (PD) is a system that converts lights into electricity as well as induces charge transfer by photovoltaic effect. Motivated by such unique property, we have hypothesized that a PD can serve as a new drug delivery system to carry chemotherapeutic drugs and release them upon external photo stimulation, such as near Near-Infrared (NIR) light or Laser source. Taking advantage of repulsion between a photovoltaic device and a substance is proposed to serve as a new drug delivery method. In this study, we have investigated if the if the charged molecules can be effectively released from the PV device upon photon stimulation.
Methodology
As proof of principle, we have first experimented coating of commercially available photovoltaic devices with positively charged poly-l-lysine and negatively charged bovine serum albumin (BSA) tested the release of the molecules upon photo stimulation. These molecules were physically absorbed onto the surface of the PDs before exposed to an IR LED illuminator, which was used as an external light source. Moreover, the pure glass slide was used as a control of the device with non-photovoltaic effect for drug delivery.
Results and Discussion
During the series of experiments, we have found that, the PD has a capability to release the charged drugs by photovoltaic effect. Compared to no light stimulation, the positively charged poly-l-lysine and the negatively charged BSA when exposed to IR illuminator for 3 hours were released about 2.0 folds and 2.1 folds respectively. Moreover, in the control group (pure glass slide with no photovoltaic effect), there was no significant release of both poly-l-lysine and BSA when exposed to the IR illustrator.
Conclusion
These data showed that the new PD can effectively carry either positively or negative charged molecules on its surface and release them upon external photo stimulation, which suggests the PD has potential to be used as a new drug delivery system to carry cancer chemotherapeutic drugs. Further experiments are planned on the micro-fabricated photovoltaic devices (Size 300µm to 500 µm). With this project a new approach for targeted drug delivery with micro- photovoltaic devices will be developed.
(*Proprietary: an IP application based on this study is pending)