Light-enabled drug delivery
AssigneeVirginia Commonwealth University
InventorsMatthew Hartman, Martin Michael Dcona, Deboleena Mitra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Conjugates are provided which comprise a membrane permeable drug linked to a moiety that is not membrane permeable. Attachment of the moiety that is not membrane permeable prevents the drug from crossing cell membranes and entering cells. However, exposure to light either i) breaks the linkage, releasing the drug and allowing it to enter cells; or ii) converts the non-membrane permeable moiety to a membrane permeable form, allowing the entire conjugate to enter the cell, where the drug is released from the conjugate by cleavage. The membrane permeable drugs are thus delivered to cells at locations of interest, e.g. cancer cells in a tumor, in a temporally and spatially controlled manner.
Claims7
A conjugate for delivering a membrane permeable drug into cells, comprising
- said membrane permeable drug, and
- a membrane impermeable moiety chemically attached to said membrane permeable drug.
A method of providing a membrane permeable drug to cells at a targeted location in a patient in need thereof, comprising
- I) administering to said patient a conjugate, comprising said membrane permeable drug, and a membrane impermeable moiety chemically attached to said membrane permeable drug.
- and
- II) exposing said targeted location to light when said conjugate is at said targeted location,
- wherein either
- i) said membrane impermeable moiety is chemically attached to said membrane permeable drug via a photolabile linkage, and said step of exposing causes cleavage of said photolabile linkage;
- or
- ii) said membrane impermeable moiety comprises a peptide that adopts an α-helical conformation and becomes membrane permeable upon exposure to light, and said step of exposing causes said peptide to adopt an α-helical conformation and become membrane permeable.
A method of treating a patient having a disease or condition that is treatable by administration of a membrane permeable drug, comprising the steps of
- i) administering to said patient a conjugate comprising said membrane permeable drug, and a membrane impermeable moiety chemically attached to said membrane permeable drug;
- and
- ii) exposing a section of the body of said patient that is affected by said disease or condition to light.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.