Description:
Reference #: 01106
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for a new RAFT agent to efficiently restore antibiotic activity by using synthesized nanoparticles.
Invention Description:
The subject invention is a new reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) agent to conduct the surface-initiated RAFT polymerization of N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) on silica nanoparticles.
Potential Applications:
· Biomedical
· Cosmetics
· Drug delivery
Advantages and Benefits:
Incereases productivity and efficiency
Background:
Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) is a very important water soluble polymer that is widely used in the biomedical and cosmetic industries because of its nontoxic, nonionic characteristics and biocompatibility. Its ability to conjugate active biomolecules and prolong the circulation lifetime of antibiotics in blood makes it particularly attractive for use in drug delivery.
Although PVP has been widely synthesized via free radical polymerization of NVP, the preparation of PVP-grafted nanoparticles with great control on polymer chain length and architecture is needed, which is extremely important for biomedical applications. Very few people have reported the polymerization of NVP on nanoparticles in a controlled manner.
Experimental Validation:
There was conclusive evidence that antibiotic activity increased when bound to the PVP-grafted silica nanoparticles. TEM imaging also showed that the nanoparticles were perfectly dispersed and demonstrates that the size of the nanoparticles was around 20-30 nm in diameter.