Controlled Release and Intracellular Delivery of Small Molecules Using Thermally Responsive Pluronic F127-Chitosan Nanocapsules

Nanoscale particulate systems have been studied as the delivery vehicle of various drugs and therapeutic agents for decades with promising outcomes. Recently, nano-particulate systems that are responsive to one or more environmental stimuli (such as temperature, pH, and electromagnetic field) are attracting increasing attention because they allow drug delivery and release to be done in a more controllable fashion [1]. The thermally (temperature) responsive nanoparticles are of particular interest to many researchers because the temperature controlled release of the encapsulated drug can be conveniently done with either thermo (using supraphysiologic temperatures) or cryo (using sub-zero temperature) therapies, minimally invasive energy-based surgical techniques that have been widely studied as potential alternatives to radical surgical intervention for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Moreover, a significantly improved outcome of cancer treatment has been reported by combining thermotherapy (using supraphysiologic temperatures) and anticancer drug encapsulated in thermally responsive nanoparticles [2]. Here, we report thermally responsive nanocapsules that can be combined with cryotherapy for cancer treatment.