Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (19)

Free drug and ROS-responsive nanoparticle delivery of synergistic doxorubicin and olaparib combinations to triple negative breast cancer models (2024)
Journal Article
Cavanagh, R. J., Monteiro, P. F., Moloney, C., Travanut, A., Mehradnia, F., Taresco, V., …Alexander, C. (2024). Free drug and ROS-responsive nanoparticle delivery of synergistic doxorubicin and olaparib combinations to triple negative breast cancer models. Biomaterials Science, 12(7), 1822-1840. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3bm01931d

Combinations of the topoisomerase II inhibitor doxorubicin and the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor olaparib offer potential drug-drug synergy for the treatment of triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). In this study we performed in vitro scree... Read More about Free drug and ROS-responsive nanoparticle delivery of synergistic doxorubicin and olaparib combinations to triple negative breast cancer models.

Oxidation of Monoterpenes to Form Diols and Triols: A Versatile Toolbox for Polymer Synthesis (2023)
Journal Article
Fowler, H. R., O'Brien, D. M., Keddie, D. J., Alexander, C., Irvine, D. J., Stockman, R. A., …Taresco, V. (2023). Oxidation of Monoterpenes to Form Diols and Triols: A Versatile Toolbox for Polymer Synthesis. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 224(8), Article 2200446. https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.202200446

Polyols and polyacrylates have a wide range of applications in polymer synthesis as monomers, initiators, or building blocks in a variety of polymerization reaction types. With an ever-growing need to reduce the global dependency on fossil fuels, fin... Read More about Oxidation of Monoterpenes to Form Diols and Triols: A Versatile Toolbox for Polymer Synthesis.

Passerini chemistries for synthesis of polymer pro-drug and polymersome drug delivery nanoparticles (2022)
Journal Article
Travanut, A., Monteiro, P. F., Smith, S., Howdle, S. M., Grabowska, A. M., Kellam, B., …Alexander, C. (2022). Passerini chemistries for synthesis of polymer pro-drug and polymersome drug delivery nanoparticles. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 10, 3895-3905. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tb00045h

New materials chemistries are urgently needed to overcome the limitations of existing biomedical materials in terms of preparation, functionality and versatility, and also in regards to their compatibility with biological environments. Here, we show... Read More about Passerini chemistries for synthesis of polymer pro-drug and polymersome drug delivery nanoparticles.

Synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamides for transport and delivery in pancreatic cell lines in vitro and in vivo (2022)
Journal Article
Anane-Adjei, A. B., Fletcher, N. L., Cavanagh, R. J., Houston, Z. H., Crawford, T., Pearce, A. K., …Alexander, C. (2022). Synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamides for transport and delivery in pancreatic cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Biomaterials Science, 10(9), 2328-2344. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1bm01548f

Hyperbranched polymers have many promising features for drug delivery, owing to their ease of synthesis, multiple functional group content, and potential for high drug loading with retention of solubility. Here we prepared hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxyp... Read More about Synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamides for transport and delivery in pancreatic cell lines in vitro and in vivo.

Synthesis and Antibacterial Evaluation of New Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines Kinase Inhibitors (2020)
Journal Article
Greco, C., Catania, R., Balacco, D. L., Taresco, V., Musumeci, F., Alexander, C., …Schenone, S. (2020). Synthesis and Antibacterial Evaluation of New Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines Kinase Inhibitors. Molecules, 25(22), Article 5354. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25225354

Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines represent an important class of heterocyclic compounds well-known for their anticancer activity exerted by the inhibition of eukaryotic protein kinases. Recently, pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines have become increasingly attracti... Read More about Synthesis and Antibacterial Evaluation of New Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines Kinase Inhibitors.

Synthesis of Passerini-3CR Polymers and Assembly into Cytocompatible Polymersomes (2020)
Journal Article
Travanut, A., Monteiro, P. F., Oelmann, S., Howdle, S. M., Grabowska, A. M., Clarke, P. A., …Alexander, C. (2021). Synthesis of Passerini-3CR Polymers and Assembly into Cytocompatible Polymersomes. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 42(6), Article 2000321. https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202000321

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH The versatility of the Passerini three component reaction (Passerini-3CR) is herein exploited for the synthesis of an amphiphilic diblock copolymer, which self-assembles into polymersomes. Carboxy-funct... Read More about Synthesis of Passerini-3CR Polymers and Assembly into Cytocompatible Polymersomes.

Facile Dye-Initiated Polymerization of Lactide–Glycolide Generates Highly Fluorescent Poly(lactic-co-glycolic Acid) for Enhanced Characterization of Cellular Delivery (2020)
Journal Article
Al-Natour, M. A., Yousif, M. D., Cavanagh, R., Abouselo, A., Apebende, E. A., Ghaemmaghami, A., …Alexander, C. (2020). Facile Dye-Initiated Polymerization of Lactide–Glycolide Generates Highly Fluorescent Poly(lactic-co-glycolic Acid) for Enhanced Characterization of Cellular Delivery. ACS Macro Letters, 9(3), 431-437. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.9b01014

Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a versatile synthetic copolymer that is widely used in pharmaceutical applications. This is because it is well-tolerated in the body, and copolymers of varying physic... Read More about Facile Dye-Initiated Polymerization of Lactide–Glycolide Generates Highly Fluorescent Poly(lactic-co-glycolic Acid) for Enhanced Characterization of Cellular Delivery.

Development of Pyrazolo[3,4- d]pyrimidine Kinase Inhibitors as Potential Clinical Candidates for Glioblastoma Multiforme (2020)
Journal Article
Greco, C., Taresco, V., Pearce, A. K., Vasey, C. E., Smith, S., Rahman, R., …Schenone, S. (2020). Development of Pyrazolo[3,4- d]pyrimidine Kinase Inhibitors as Potential Clinical Candidates for Glioblastoma Multiforme. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 11(5), 657-663. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.9b00530

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive primary brain tumor. Residual cells at the tumor margin are responsible for up to 85% of GBM recurrences after standard treatment. Despite this evidence, the identification of compounds active on t... Read More about Development of Pyrazolo[3,4- d]pyrimidine Kinase Inhibitors as Potential Clinical Candidates for Glioblastoma Multiforme.

A ‘greener’ one-pot synthesis of monoterpene-functionalised lactide oligomers (2020)
Journal Article
O'Brien, D. M., Atkinson, R. L., Cavanagh, R., Pacheco, A. A., Larder, R., Kortsen, K., …Taresco, V. (2020). A ‘greener’ one-pot synthesis of monoterpene-functionalised lactide oligomers. European Polymer Journal, 125, 109516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2020.109516

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd In this work we aimed to achieve a totally sustainable Ring Opening Polymerisation (ROP) process, by harmonising the use of naturally occurring or derivable initiators and the green solvent 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF). First... Read More about A ‘greener’ one-pot synthesis of monoterpene-functionalised lactide oligomers.

Enhancing doxorubicin anticancer activity with a novel polymeric platform photoreleasing nitric oxide (2019)
Journal Article
Sodano, F., Cavanagh, R., Pearce, A. K., Lazzarato, L., Rolando, B., Fraix, A., …Sortino, S. (2020). Enhancing doxorubicin anticancer activity with a novel polymeric platform photoreleasing nitric oxide. Biomaterials Science, 8(5), 1329-1344. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9bm01644a

© 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Combinations of conventional chemotherapeutics with unconventional anticancer agents such as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species may offer treatment benefits for cancer therapies. Here we report a novel polymer... Read More about Enhancing doxorubicin anticancer activity with a novel polymeric platform photoreleasing nitric oxide.

Role of Self‐Assembly Conditions and Amphiphilic Balance on Nanoparticle Formation of PEG‐PDLLA Copolymers in Aqueous Environments (2019)
Journal Article
Phan, H., Minut, R. I., McCrorie, P., Vasey, C., Larder, R. R., Krumins, E., …Pearce, A. K. (2019). Role of Self‐Assembly Conditions and Amphiphilic Balance on Nanoparticle Formation of PEG‐PDLLA Copolymers in Aqueous Environments. Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, 57(17), 1801-1810. https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.29451

The production of well-defined and reproducible poly-meric nanoparticles (NPs), in terms of size and stability in biological environments, is undoubtedly a fundamental challenge in the formulation of novel and more effective nanomedicines. The adopti... Read More about Role of Self‐Assembly Conditions and Amphiphilic Balance on Nanoparticle Formation of PEG‐PDLLA Copolymers in Aqueous Environments.

Synthesis of methacrylate-terminated block copolymers with reduced transesterification by controlled ring-opening polymerization (2018)
Journal Article
Ruiz-Cantu, L. A., Pearce, A. K., Burroughs, L., Bennett, T. M., Vasey, C. E., Wildman, R., …Taresco, V. (2019). Synthesis of methacrylate-terminated block copolymers with reduced transesterification by controlled ring-opening polymerization. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 220(2), Article 1800459. https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.201800459

This work presents a robust method to achieve the synthesis of low molecular weight polyesters 26 via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) initiated by 2-hydroxyethyl-methacrylate (HEMA) 27 when using triazabicyclodecene (TBD) as catalyst. The effect th... Read More about Synthesis of methacrylate-terminated block copolymers with reduced transesterification by controlled ring-opening polymerization.

In Silico Screening for Solid Dispersions: The Trouble with Solubility Parameters and χFH (2018)
Journal Article
Turpin, E. R., Taresco, V., Al-Hachami, W. A., Booth, J., Treacher, K., Tomasi, S., …Garnett, M. C. (2018). In Silico Screening for Solid Dispersions: The Trouble with Solubility Parameters and χFH. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 15(10), 4654-4667. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00637

© Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society. The problem of predicting small molecule-polymer compatibility is relevant to many areas of chemistry and pharmaceutical science but particularly drug delivery. Computational methods based on Hildebrand and... Read More about In Silico Screening for Solid Dispersions: The Trouble with Solubility Parameters and χFH.

Versatile routes to functional RAFT chain transfer agents through the Passerini multicomponent reaction (2017)
Journal Article
Pearce, A. K., Travanut, A., Couturaud, B., Taresco, V., Howdle, S. M., Alexander, M. R., & Alexander, C. (2017). Versatile routes to functional RAFT chain transfer agents through the Passerini multicomponent reaction. ACS Macro Letters, 6(7), 781-785. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00415

The widespread adoption of RAFT polymerization stems partly from the ease and utility of installing a functional chain transfer agent onto the ends of the generated polymer chains. In parallel, the Passerini multicomponent reaction offers great versa... Read More about Versatile routes to functional RAFT chain transfer agents through the Passerini multicomponent reaction.

Bioreducible cross-linked core polymer micelles enhance in vitro activity of methotrexate in breast cancer cells (2017)
Journal Article
Gulfam, M., Matini, T., Monteiro, P. F., Riva, R., Collins, H., Spriggs, K., …Alexander, C. (2017). Bioreducible cross-linked core polymer micelles enhance in vitro activity of methotrexate in breast cancer cells. Biomaterials Science, 5, https://doi.org/10.1039/c6bm00888g

Polymer micelles have emerged as promising carriers for controlled release applications, however, several limitations of micelle-based drug delivery have also been reported. To address these issues, we have synthesized a functional biodegradable and... Read More about Bioreducible cross-linked core polymer micelles enhance in vitro activity of methotrexate in breast cancer cells.

Amphiphilic block copolymers from a renewable ?-decalactone monomer: prediction and characterization of micellar core effects on drug encapsulation and release (2016)
Journal Article
Kakde, D., Taresco, V., Bansal, K. K., Magennis, E. P., Howdle, S. M., Mantovani, G., …Alexander, C. (in press). Amphiphilic block copolymers from a renewable Ɛ-decalactone monomer: prediction and characterization of micellar core effects on drug encapsulation and release. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 44, https://doi.org/10.1039/C6TB01839D

Here we describe a methoxy poly(ethyleneglycol)-b-poly(ε-decalactone) (mPEG-b-PεDL) copolymer and investigate the potential of the copolymer as a vehicle for solubilisation and sustained release of indomethacin (IND). The indomethacin loading and rel... Read More about Amphiphilic block copolymers from a renewable ?-decalactone monomer: prediction and characterization of micellar core effects on drug encapsulation and release.

Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of in vitro toxicity in hepatocytes of linear polyesters with varied aromatic and aliphatic co-monomers (2016)
Journal Article
Kakde, D., Powell, L. G., Bansal, K. K., Howdle, S., Irvine, D., Mantovani, G., …Alexander, C. (2016). Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of in vitro toxicity in hepatocytes of linear polyesters with varied aromatic and aliphatic co-monomers. Journal of Controlled Release, 244(B), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2016.08.003

Polyesters are extensively used in drug delivery because of their controllable biodegradation properties and perceived favorable cytocompatibility. However, new ester-based materials are continually being sought which can be produced from readily acc... Read More about Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of in vitro toxicity in hepatocytes of linear polyesters with varied aromatic and aliphatic co-monomers.

Synthesis of 19F nucleic acid–polymer conjugates as real-time MRI probes of biorecognition (2016)
Journal Article
Sicilia, G., Davis, A. L., Spain, S. G., Magnusson, J. P., Boase, N. R., Thurecht, K. J., & Alexander, C. (2016). Synthesis of 19F nucleic acid–polymer conjugates as real-time MRI probes of biorecognition. Polymer Chemistry, 7(12), 2180-2191. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5PY01883H

Polymer–DNA conjugates in which one nucleic acid strand contains fluorine-substituted nucleobases have been prepared and characterised. The efficacy of these novel 19F nucleic acid–polymer conjugates as sensitive and selective in vitro reporters of D... Read More about Synthesis of 19F nucleic acid–polymer conjugates as real-time MRI probes of biorecognition.