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2‐Methyltetrahydrofuran (2‐MeTHF) as a versatile green solvent for the synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers via ROP, FRP, and RAFT tandem polymerizations (2020)
Journal Article
Englezou, G., Kortsen, K., Pacheco, A. A. C., Cavanagh, R., Lentz, J. C., Krumins, E., …Taresco, V. (2020). 2‐Methyltetrahydrofuran (2‐MeTHF) as a versatile green solvent for the synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers via ROP, FRP, and RAFT tandem polymerizations. Journal of Polymer Science, 58(11), 1571-1581. https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20200183

2‐methyltetrahydrofuran (2‐MeTHF) is a readily available, inexpensive, neoteric, bio‐based solvent. It has been adopted across a wide range of chemical processes including the batch manufacture of fine chemicals, enzymatic polycondensations and ring... Read More about 2‐Methyltetrahydrofuran (2‐MeTHF) as a versatile green solvent for the synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers via ROP, FRP, and RAFT tandem polymerizations.

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.

Starch/Poly(glycerol-adipate) Nanocomposites: A Novel Oral Drug Delivery Device (2020)
Journal Article
Vestri, A., Pearce, A. K., Cavanagh, R., Styliari, I. D., Sanders, C., Couturaud, B., …Sagnelli, D. (2020). Starch/Poly(glycerol-adipate) Nanocomposites: A Novel Oral Drug Delivery Device. Coatings, 10(2), Article 125. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10020125

Biocompatible and bio-based materials are an appealing resource for the pharmaceutical industry. Poly(glycerol-adipate) (PGA) is a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer that can be used to produce self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) able to encapsul... Read More about Starch/Poly(glycerol-adipate) Nanocomposites: A Novel Oral Drug Delivery Device.

Enzymatic One-Pot Synthesis of Renewable and Biodegradable Surfactants in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (scCO2) (2020)
Journal Article
d’Almeida Gamiero, M., Goddard, A. . R., Taresco, V., & Howdle, S. M. (2020). Enzymatic One-Pot Synthesis of Renewable and Biodegradable Surfactants in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (scCO2). Green Chemistry, 22(4), 1308-1318. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9gc04011k

We seek to expand the opportunities to exploit glycerol, a largely untapped renewable feedstock, by exploiting enzymatic catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). This work highlights a promising and clean approach to bio-renewable amphiphil... Read More about Enzymatic One-Pot Synthesis of Renewable and Biodegradable Surfactants in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (scCO2).

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.

A simple and efficient method for polymer coating of iron oxide nanoparticles (2019)
Journal Article
Abushrida, A., Elhuni, I., Taresco, V., Marciani, L., Stolnik, S., & Garnett, M. C. (2020). A simple and efficient method for polymer coating of iron oxide nanoparticles. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 55, Article 101460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2019.101460

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) have many possible uses including as MRI contrast agents, for drug delivery and cell labelling, but need to be stabilised and to be rendered biocompatible through appropriate coatings. Many current coatings are subopti... Read More about A simple and efficient method for polymer coating of iron oxide nanoparticles.

Development of bioactive electrospun scaffolds suitable to support skin fibroblasts and release Lucilia sericata maggot excretion/secretion (2019)
Preprint / Working Paper
Giacaman, A. G., Styliari, I. D., Taresco, V., Pritchard, D., Alexander, C., & Rose, F. R. Development of bioactive electrospun scaffolds suitable to support skin fibroblasts and release Lucilia sericata maggot excretion/secretion

Larval therapy has been reported to exert beneficial actions upon chronic wound healing by promoting granulation tissue formation, antimicrobial activity and degrading necrotic tissue. However, the use of live maggots is problematic for patient accep... Read More about Development of bioactive electrospun scaffolds suitable to support skin fibroblasts and release Lucilia sericata maggot excretion/secretion.

Enhanced performance of Candida rugosa lipase immobilized onto alkyl chain modified-magnetic nanocomposites (2019)
Journal Article
Francolini, I., Taresco, V., Martinelli, A., & Piozzi, A. (2020). Enhanced performance of Candida rugosa lipase immobilized onto alkyl chain modified-magnetic nanocomposites. Enzyme and Microbial Technology, 132, Article 109439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enzmictec.2019.109439

Lipase-immobilized nanomaterials with high activity and stable reusability would have a great impact in different fields. However, developing such materials has proven to be challenging. Herein, polymer (pAcDED)-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) d... Read More about Enhanced performance of Candida rugosa lipase immobilized onto alkyl chain modified-magnetic nanocomposites.

Poly (glycerol adipate) (PGA), an Enzymatically Synthesized Functionalizable Polyester and Versatile Drug Delivery Carrier: A Literature Update (2019)
Journal Article
Swainson, S. M., Styliari, I. D., Taresco, V., & Garnett, M. C. (2019). Poly (glycerol adipate) (PGA), an Enzymatically Synthesized Functionalizable Polyester and Versatile Drug Delivery Carrier: A Literature Update. Polymers, 11(10), 1561. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11101561

The enzymatically synthesized poly (glycerol adipate) (PGA) has demonstrated all the desirable key properties required from a performing biomaterial to be considered a versatile “polymeric-tool” in the broad field of drug delivery. The step-growth po... Read More about Poly (glycerol adipate) (PGA), an Enzymatically Synthesized Functionalizable Polyester and Versatile Drug Delivery Carrier: A Literature Update.

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.

Starch/Poly (Glycerol-Adipate) Nanocomposite Film as Novel Biocompatible Materials (2019)
Journal Article
Sagnelli, Cavanagh, Xu, Swainson, Blennow, Duncan, …Howdle. (2019). Starch/Poly (Glycerol-Adipate) Nanocomposite Film as Novel Biocompatible Materials. Coatings, 9(8), Article 482. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings9080482

Starch is one of the most abundant polysaccharides on the earth and it is the most important source of energy intake for humans. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) is also widely used for new bio-based materials. The blending of starch with other molecules m... Read More about Starch/Poly (Glycerol-Adipate) Nanocomposite Film as Novel Biocompatible Materials.

Penetration and uptake of Nanoparticles in 3D tumour spheroids (2019)
Journal Article
Tchoryk, A., Taresco, V., Argent, R., Ashford, M. B., Gellert, P., Stolnik, S., …Garnett, M. C. (2019). Penetration and uptake of Nanoparticles in 3D tumour spheroids. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 30(5), 1371-1384. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.9b00136

Animal models are effective for assessing tumour localisation of nanosystems, but difficult to use for studying penetration beyond the vasculature. Here, we have used well-characterised HCT116 colorectal cancer spheroids to study the effect of nanopa... Read More about Penetration and uptake of Nanoparticles in 3D tumour spheroids.

Rapid formulation of redox-responsive oligo-β-aminoester polyplexes with siRNA via jet printing (2018)
Journal Article
Lovato, T., Taresco, V., Alazzo, A., Sansone, C., Stolnik, S., Alexander, C., & Conte, C. (2018). Rapid formulation of redox-responsive oligo-β-aminoester polyplexes with siRNA via jet printing. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 6(41), 6550-6558. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8TB01215F

Here we describe a rapid inkjet formulation method for screening newly-synthesised cationic materials for siRNA delivery into cancer cells. Reduction responsive oligo-β-aminoesters were prepared and evaluated for their ability to condense siRNA into... Read More about Rapid formulation of redox-responsive oligo-β-aminoester polyplexes with siRNA via jet printing.

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.

Structural variations in hyperbranched polymers prepared via thermal polycondensation of lysine and histidine and their effects on DNA delivery (2018)
Journal Article
Alazzo, A., Lovato, T., Collins, H. M., Taresco, V., Stolnik, S., Soliman, M. E., Spriggs, K., & Alexander, C. (2018). Structural variations in hyperbranched polymers prepared via thermal polycondensation of lysine and histidine and their effects on DNA delivery. Journal of Interdisciplinary Nanomedicine, 3(2), https://doi.org/10.1002/jin2.36

The successful clinical translation of non-viral gene delivery systems has yet to be achieved due to the biological and technical obstacles to preparing a safe, potent and cost-effective vector. Hyper-branched polymers have emerged as promising candi... Read More about Structural variations in hyperbranched polymers prepared via thermal polycondensation of lysine and histidine and their effects on DNA delivery.

Stimuli-responsive prodrug chemistries for drug delivery (2018)
Journal Article
Taresco, V., Alexander, C., Singh, N., & Pearce, A. K. (in press). Stimuli-responsive prodrug chemistries for drug delivery. Advanced Therapeutics, https://doi.org/10.1002/adtp.201800030

Research into advanced therapeutic materials is of growing importance worldwide, particularly in the disease areas of infection, neurodegeneration, and oncology. Advances have been made in treating these diverse pathologies but there still remain man... Read More about Stimuli-responsive prodrug chemistries for drug delivery.

Synthesis and properties of a biodegradable polymer-drug conjugate: Methotrexate-poly(glycerol adipate) (2018)
Journal Article
Suksiriworapong, J., Taresco, V., Ivanov, D. P., Styliari, I. D., Sakchaisri, K., Junyaprasert, V. B., & Garnett, M. C. (2018). Synthesis and properties of a biodegradable polymer-drug conjugate: Methotrexate-poly(glycerol adipate). Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 167, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.03.048

Polymer-drug conjugates have been actively developed as potential anticancer drug delivery systems. In this study, we report the first polymer-anticancer drug conjugate with poly(glycerol adipate) (PGA) through the successful conjugation of methotrex... Read More about Synthesis and properties of a biodegradable polymer-drug conjugate: Methotrexate-poly(glycerol adipate).

Rapid nano-gram scale screening method of micro-arrays to evaluate drug-polymer blends using high-throughput printing technology (2017)
Journal Article
Taresco, V., Louzao, I., Scurr, D. J., Turpin, E. R., Laughton, C. A., Alexander, C., …Garnett, M. (in press). Rapid nano-gram scale screening method of micro-arrays to evaluate drug-polymer blends using high-throughput printing technology. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 14(6), https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.7b00182

A miniaturized, high-throughput assay was optimized to screen polymer-drug solid dispersions using a 2-D Ink-jet printer. By simply printing nanoliter amounts of polymer and drug solutions onto an inert surface, drug:polymer micro-dots of tunable com... Read More about Rapid nano-gram scale screening method of micro-arrays to evaluate drug-polymer blends using high-throughput printing technology.

New N-acyl amino acid-functionalized biodegradable polyesters for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications (2016)
Journal Article
Taresco, V., Suksiriworapong, J., Styliari, I. D., Argent, R. H., Swainson, S. M., Booth, J., …Garnett, M. C. (in press). New N-acyl amino acid-functionalized biodegradable polyesters for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. RSC Advances, 6(111), 109401-109405. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA21464A

A novel class of biodegradable polyesters has been generated by coupling poly(glycerol adipate) with N-acyl aromatic amino acids. This new set of polymers from this highly versatile polymeric platform may offer unprecedented new opportunities to prod... Read More about New N-acyl amino acid-functionalized biodegradable polyesters for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.