Characterization of a Drug Delivery System for the Antifungal Peptide MUC7 12-Mer Using Time-Of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

摘要

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) gels have been used since the 1950s as a soft contact lens material due to their good biocompatibility and high water content at equilibrium. Today hydrogels are used in various biomedical applications such as biosensors, biomembranes and carriers for controlled delivery of drugs/proteins. The latter application is the focus of the present study, which designed hydrogel polymers for controlled release of an antifungal peptide derived from human salivary MUC7 mucin. The present study was undertaken to: (1) develop methods to determine and optimize the amount of peptide present in the polymeric matrix of the hydrogel; (2) determine the surface concentration of the peptide on the gel during the release and (3) determine if this amount present on surface is enough for efficient biological activity using data from XPS and TOF-SIMS.