Nanoporous materials modified with biodegradable polymers as models for drug delivery applications

Polymers play a central role in the development of carriers for diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Especially the use of either degradable polymers or porous materials to encapsulate drug compounds in order to obtain steady drug release profiles has received much attention. We present here a proof of principle for a system combining these two encapsulation methods and consisting of a nanoporous polymer (NP) with the pores filled with a degradable polymer mixed with a drug model. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) mixed with Poly(L-Lactic Acid) (PLLA) were confined within the 14 nm pores of a NP with gyroid morphology derived from a diblock copolymer precursor. Glass transition, crystallization and melting of free and confined PLLA were monitored by differential scanning calorimetry. Release profiles for R6G were measured in methanol-water solvents at pH 13, which works as an accelerated release test by speeding up the hydrolysis of PLLA. The obtained release profiles demonstrate that the degradation of PLLA in nanoporous confinement is significantly slower than the degradation of unconfined PLLA. The release of R6G encapsulated in PLLA becomes correspondingly slower, while the initial burst release virtually disappears. These findings suggest that the presented proof of principle constitutes a promising basis for the development of novel implantable drug delivery systems.