Immobilization of a carbon nanomaterial-based localized drug-release system using a bispecific material-binding peptide

Abstract

Introduction

Inorganic materials are widely used in medical devices, such as artificial hearts, vessels, and joints, in stents, and as nanocarriers for drug-delivery systems. Carbon nanomaterials are of particular interest due to their biological inertness and their capability to accommodate molecules. Several attempts have been proposed, in which carbon nanomaterials are used as nanocarriers for the systemic delivery of drugs.

Materials and methods

We developed a drug-delivery system in which oxidized single-walled carbon nanohorns (oxSWNHs) were immobilized on a titanium (Ti) surface using material-binding peptides to enable localized drug delivery. For this purpose, we utilized a bispecific peptidic aptamer comprising a core sequence of a Ti-binding peptide and a SWNH-binding peptide to immobilize oxSWNHs on Ti.

Results

Scanning electron microscopy was used to confirm the presence of oxSWNHs adsorbed onto the Ti surface, and a quartz crystal microbalance was used to evaluate the binding process during oxSWNH adsorption. The oxSWNHs-ornamented Ti substrate was nontoxic to cells and released biologically active dexamethasone over a sustained period.

Conclusion

This oxSWNHs-immobilized system can be used to modify the surface of Ti in implants and be loaded with drugs that stimulate osteogenesis and bone regeneration.

Keywords:

• drug carrier
• drug delivery
• carbon nanomaterial
• carbon nanohorn
• peptide aptamer

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr T Imamura for kindly providing the MC3T3-E1 cells and ST2 cells, Dr K-I Sano for valuable discussion, and Ms T Minamisawa for technical assistance.

This work was supported by a JSPS KAKENHI (grant no 21791959, 16K11524).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.