Lock and key micelles
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsGeorge R. Newkome, Charles N. Moorefield, Gregory Baker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lock unimolecular micelle includes at least one engineered acceptor specifically binding a ligand (or specifically a “key” unimolecular micelle) thereto. A key unimolecular micelle comprises a core molecule and a plurality of branches extending therefrom, at least one of the branches including a shank portion extending therefrom having a terminal moiety at an end thereof for binding to a complimentary acceptor of a lock unimolecular micelle. Together, the lock and key micelles form a unit, either irreversibly or reversibly bound wherein the lock micelles is a soluble receptor engineered to specifically bind to the specifically engineered key micelle.
Claims16
A lock unimolecular micelle including at least one void region defining a pocket and an engineered acceptor within said void region having an affinity for a complementary site of a ligand for specifically binding the ligand to the acceptor with said pocket.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.