2024 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 111-112
Many polysaccharides have some features of not only bio-function and bioactivity, but also polymer materials such as hydrophilicity, water-solubility, hydrolyzability, and biodegradability. In this topic, we introduce the application of polysaccharides to drug delivery system (DDS) by using the specific interaction between the polysaccharide and the receptor. We prepared several conjugates consisting of hyaluronic acid (HA) as a carrier to cancer cells and ovalbumin (OVA) as a model drug. From multiangle light scattering analysis, the conjugate containing multiple HA and OVA molecules (100k4HA-3OVA) adopted a highly condensed structure. When the conjugates were added to a quartz crystal microbalance cell coated with CD44 which is one of the major HA receptors, a larger frequency change was observed than HA. FITC-labeled conjugates were incorporated into cancer cells expressing CD44 at a high level. These results indicate that the affinity of HA for CD44 improved by adopting a highly condensed structure. We wish that such a biocompatible material becomes a breakthrough in DDS.
