STIMULI RESPONSIVE POLYMERIC NANOGELS FOR HYDROPHOBICS & HYDROPHILICS DELIVERY

Stimuli responsive nanoparticles have gained significant interest in the drug delivery research. The essential goal of drug delivery is to improve the efficacy of drugs by increasing their stability and bioavailability. Small molecule hydrophobic drugs face limited bioavailability due to their poor water solubility. Biologic drugs on the other hand, lack bioavailability because of their degradation by various enzymes encountered during blood circulation. For a systemic delivery approach, depending on site of drug action, delivery vehicles must pass through several contrasting micro environments before delivering the cargo selectively at the target site. Therefore, it is essential that a delivery vehicle shields the encapsulated therapeutics until reaching the targeted site, thereby improving the bioavailability and efficacy. Considering these parameters, our group has developed a nanoparticle based delivery platform (nanogel) aiming for cytosolic drug release. In this thesis we address x some of the challenges associated with nanoparticle mediated tumor targeted drug delivery, by utilizing the nanogel platform. By incorporating the novel nanoparticle design principles, we demonstrated efficient targeted delivery of hydrophobic drugs, as well as developed a new platform for delivery of hydrophilics. Additionally, we have also generated useful insights in the field of stimuli response polymeric nanoparticles which will be critical for future research in the field