Nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Child, Hannah (2012) Nanoparticles for biomedical applications. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Modern day medicine is on the brink of a new age of therapy, which aims to
harness the natural power of molecular biology for disease treatment. This
therapy could include replacement of dysfunctional genes that cause disorders
such as cystic fibrosis (Lommatzsch and Aris, 2009), or silencing the overexpression
of genes that cause disorders such as cancer (Pelengaris and Khan,
2003). In both examples, the treatment of these genetic diseases lies in the
delivery of synthetic nucleic acids into diseased cells, the former being called
gene replacement therapy (Dobson, 2006a), and the latter being called RNA
interference (RNAi) therapy (Whitehead et al., 2009). While these techniques
have long been in use as genetic research tools for gene transfection or silencing
in vitro, their translation for use in clinical disease treatment has yet to be
achieved. The main problem facing the development of these novel therapies is
the specific delivery of nucleic acids into diseased cells within the body. It is
hoped that nanoparticles (NPs) can be used to overcome this problem, by acting
as vehicles to transport nucleic acids through the body for specific delivery into
diseased cells. This feat can be aided by the attachment of additional functional
molecules such as cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), targeting peptides,
additional drug types and molecules for imaging during treatment. Many
different NP design strategies are currently under development. It is essential
for new designs to be extensively tested for toxicity and efficiency in human
cells before they can be successfully released into the clinic.
As part of this effort, this PhD project has investigated two different NP design
strategies for drug delivery: 1) the use of a magnetic field (MF) and a CPP to
increase the delivery of iron oxide magnetic NPs (mNPs) to cells grown in tissueequivalent
3D collagen gels, and 2) gold NPs (AuNPs) for the delivery of siRNA to
silence the c-myc oncogene for cancer treatment. In the first investigation, a MF
and the CPP penetratin were found to increase mNP delivery to cells grown in
3D. In the second investigation, AuNPs were assessed in a range of different cell
types (grown in 2D) for their performance in 4 main areas; cellular toxicity,
cellular uptake, c-myc knockdown and effect on the cell cycle.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Nanoparticles
• Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Supervisor's Name: Berry, Dr. Catherine
• Date of Award: 2012
• Depositing User: Miss Hannah Child
• Unique ID: glathesis:2012-3583
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Sep 2012
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 14:08
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/3583