Biodegradable polymeric microcapsules for selective ultrasound-triggered drug release

Dennis Lensen (1) , Erik Gelderblom (2) , Dennis Vriezema (3) , Philippe Marmottant (4) , Nico Verdonschot (1, 2) , Michel Versluis (2) , Nico De Jong (2, 5) , Jan C. M. van Hest (1)

1 Biophysics - Department of Medical Physics and Biophysics
2 University of Twente
3 Encapson - Encapson
4 DYFCOM - DYnamique des Fluides COmplexes et Morphogénèse [Grenoble]
5 ErasmusMC- ThoraxCentruum

A series of hollow biodegradable polymeric microcapsules were prepared, of which their susceptibility to ultrasound was used for triggered release. High speed imaging of the ultrasound experiments showed a strong correlation between the acoustic pressure needed to activate these microcapsules and their shell thickness to diameter ratio. Based on this information a selective triggering of capsules with two different shell thickness to diameter ratios was successfully performed. The capsules were mixed in a single system and were activated independently from each other by a differentiation in acoustic pressure levels. This application is of great interest in the field of drug delivery, since this system allows for localized multiple drug releases in a selective fashion.

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Dennis Lensen, Erik Gelderblom, Dennis Vriezema, Philippe Marmottant, Nico Verdonschot, et al.. Biodegradable polymeric microcapsules for selective ultrasound-triggered drug release. Soft Matter, 2011, 7, pp.5417. ⟨hal-00642084⟩