Iranian Scientists Produce Polymer Nanocarriers to Carry High Amounts of Antibacterial Drugs

“These nanocarriers have been designed and manufactured with the aim of achieving high drug loading, optimal size, and strong antibacterial properties against a wide range of pathogens while maintaining biocompatibility,” said Ramin Sarami Foroshani.

Also, Zahra Mohammadpour, the director of the Medical Nanotechnology Group at the Research Institute and senior researcher of this project, whose article was published in the Chemical Engineering Journal with an impact factor of 14, said, “These polymer nanoparticles, which are synthesized by controlled polymerization (RAFT) and with a block copolymer structure, have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell with active amine groups.”

“This unique core-shell structure gives them the ability to effectively load hydrophobic drugs with low bioavailability. Also, the presence of active amine groups in the shell has caused these nanoparticles to have inherent antibacterial properties. To ensure the highest drug loading percentage and the smallest nanoparticle size, the manufacturing parameters were optimized using statistical modeling. The results of the experiments showed that this nanoformulation, in addition to its high antibacterial power against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, was also safe for human cells and did not cause significant cytotoxicity or hemolysis,” she added.

“Also, cellular uptake experiments showed that these nanoparticles are well absorbed by cells and therefore have high potential for targeted drug delivery to cells, including cancer cells. Studies of the mechanism of action also indicate that the antibacterial effect of these nanoparticles is mainly through damage to the bacterial cell wall and the release of cellular contents,” Mohammadpour said.

“This achievement is not limited to the treatment of bacterial infections, and given the shell-core structure and high ability to load hydrophobic drugs, these polymer nanoparticles can be used as effective nanocarriers in drug delivery systems for various applications, including the treatment of cancer and other diseases,” she noted.

In a relevant development in 2024, an Iranian knowledge-based company stationed at Islamic Azad University’s Ilam branch had also produced a type of smart pharmaceutical nanocarrier which can release the drug in the cancerous tissue.

The new supermagnetic intelligent nanocarrier is a polymer capsule that can contain special drugs, particularly anticancer medicine, and release them only in the cancerous tissue.

“The smart pharmaceutical nanocarrier product, if used in industrial production, specially in the field of anticancer drugs, can be a very good and useful treatment for patients who are suffering from this disease,” Hossein Peyman, the managing director of the knowledge-based ‘Pouyesh Pajouhan Asou’ company and a faculty member of the Islamic Azad University’s Ilam branch, told ANA.

The advantage of the supermagnetic intelligent drug carrier is that by taking anticancer drugs, such drugs will not have a harmful and destructive impact on other body tissues.

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