A totally synthetic glucose responsive gel operating in physiological aqueous conditions

Abstract

Here described is a phenylboronic acid (PBA) based glucose-responsive hydrogel operating under physiological pH and temperature, a material potentially applicable to a totally synthetic smart insulin delivery system to treat diabetes.

Facile one-pot synthesis of fluorescent hyperbranched polymers for optical detection of glucose

“…[22][23][24][25][26] The covalent interactions between phenylbronic acid and the hydroxyl groups of saccharides (1,2-or 1,3-diols) lead to the formation of five-or sixmembered rings and allow bronic acid to be a sensitive detector for saccharides. [25][26][27][28] Figure 4 shows the fluorescent intensity curves vs. glucose concentration controlled at 0-0.8 mg/mL and the concentration of polymer kept at 0.5 wt%. The fluorescent intensity is decreased with the increasing glucose concentration in the solution.…”

Polypeptide-participating complex nanoparticles with improved salt-tolerance as excellent candidates for intelligent insulin delivery

“…Amongst others, the salt tolerance of nanocarriers at physiological concentration (0.15 M PBS) is a major concern. To evaluate the salt-tolerance of the CNPs, in this study, FITC-labeled insulin was encapsulated into the complex nanoparticles by co-assembly of P-1 and P-2 as reported, 36 and the release behavior of the loaded insulin from the CNPs was tested upon varying salt concentration. As shown in Fig.…”

Swelling Properties of Hydrogels Containing Phenylboronic Acids

“…Several devices have been proposed based on the swelling/shrinking effect, including hydrogels containing colloidal crystal arrays that change color upon swelling and shrinking due to changes in Bragg spacing [7][8][9][10][11], holograms incorporated into hydrogels that also change color [12,13], hydrogel-coated tips of optical fibers that operate as Fabry-Perot interferometers [14,15], and confined, nearly isochoric hydrogels that exert swelling pressure on microfabricated confining structures, with pressure detected either piezoresistively [16][17][18] or electromagnetically [19,20]. Figure 1 shows the simplest mechanism by which PBA responds to sugar molecules [21][22][23][24]. Under alkaline conditions boron, a Lewis acid with unfilled sp 2 orbitals, becomes negatively charged by reaction with hydroxide ion, a Lewis base.…”