<p>Cancer is currently the second leading cause of death in the United States. Although many treatment options exist, some of the most common, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, are restricted by dose-limiting toxicities. In addition, the largest hurdle for translating novel biological therapies such as siRNA into the clinic is lack of an efficient delivery mechanism to get the therapeutic into malignant cells. This work aims to improve this situation by engineering a minimally invasive controlled release system that specifically delivers therapeutics to the site of malignant tissue. This platform consists of two novel material components: a thermally responsive poly[N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide] (NIPAAm-co-AAm) hydrogel and gold-silica nanoshells. Therapeutic molecules are encapsulated within a poly(NIPAAm-co-AAm) hydrogel carrier, leading to increased serum stability, circulation time, and decreased exposure to off-site tissues. Additionally, gold-silica nanoshells embedded within this hydrogel will be used to optically trigger therapeutic release from the carrier. This hydrogel-nanoshell composite material was designed to be swollen under physiologic conditions (37 oC), and expel large amounts of water and absorbed molecules at higher temperatures (40-45 oC). This phase transition can be optically triggered by embedded gold-silica nanoshells, which rapidly transfer near-infrared (NIR) light energy into heat due to the surface plasmon resonance phenomena. NIR light can deeply penetrate biological tissue with little attenuation or damage to tissue, and upon exposure to such light a rapid temperature increase, hydrogel collapse, and drug expulsion will occur. Ultimately, these drug-loaded hydrogel-nanoshell composite particles would be injected intravenously, passively accumulate in tumor tissue due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, and then can be externally triggered to release their therapeutic payload by exposure to an external NIR laser. This dissertation describes the synthesis, characterization, and validation of such a controlled therapeutic delivery platform.</p><p>Initial validation of poly(NIPAAm-co-AAm)-gold nanoshell composites to act as a material in site-specific cancer therapeutic delivery was accomplished using bulk hydrogel-nanoparticle composite disks. The composite material underwent a phase transition from a hydrated to a collapsed state following exposure to NIR light, indicating the ability of the NIR absorption by the nanoshells to sufficiently drive this transition. The composite material was loaded with either doxorubicin or a DNA duplex (a model nucleic acid therapeutic), two cancer therapeutics with differing physical and chemical properties. Release of both therapeutics was dramatically enhanced by NIR light exposure, causing 2-5 fold increase in drug release. Drug delivery profiles were influenced by both the molecular size of the drug as well as its chemical properties. </p><p>Towards translation of this material into in vivo applications, the hydrogel-nanoshell composite material was synthesized as injectable-sized particles. Such particles retained the same thermal properties as the bulk material, collapsing in size from ~330 nm to ~270 nm upon NIR exposure. Furthermore, these particles were loaded with the chemotherapeutic doxorubicin and NIR exposure triggered a burst release of the drug payload over only 3 min. In vitro, this platform provided increased delivery of doxorubicin to colon carcinoma cells compared to free-drug controls, indicating the irradiated nanoshells may increase cell membrane permeability and increase cellular uptake of the drug. This phenomena was further explored to enhance cellular uptake of siRNA, a large anionic therapeutic which cannot diffuse into cells easily. </p><p>This work advances the development of an injectable, optically-triggered delivery platform. With continued optimization and in vivo validation, this approach may offer an novel treatment option for cancer management.</p> / Dissertation

It was demonstrated for the first time that RAFT polymerizations of NIPAAm can be carried out directly in water at room temperature without photo initiator under UV radiation. Under these conditions, the controlled/living features could be proven for a large range of monomer/RAFT agent ratios. Moreover, even at a monomer conversion exceeding 80%, polymerization control (PDI<1.2) is maintained. It is also demonstrated that the RAFT polymerization of AA can be carried out without photo initiator in water at ambient temperature in the presence of TRITT at short wavelength. At these wavelengths, the controlled/ living characteristics is maintained even at a monomer to polymer conversions exceeding 80%. UV/Vis spectrometry was employed to monitor the functional group (-S(C=S)S-) changes of the employed trithiocarbonate RAFT agent S,S???-Bis(??,?????-dimethyl-acetic acid)-trithiocarbonate (TRITT) in aqueous solution when exposed to UV radiation. It is shown that the degradation pattern of TRITT alone as well as TRITT in the presence of NIPAAm deviate from each other. Surprisingly, it is found that TRITT completely decomposed at 254 nm while the addition of monomer prevented the decomposition of TRITT at the same wavelength. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques were applied to study the decomposition products of TRITT in solution without the addition of monomer. Methanol-d4 was selected as the solvent. In addition, high-resolution soft ionization mass spectrometry techniques were used to map the product species generated during UV radiation induced RAFT polymerizations of NIPAAm and AA in aqueous media, allowing for the tentative assignment of end groups. The NMR analysis suggests that the decomposition of TRITT in methanol-d4 under UV radiation has three cleavage patterns. These three cleavage patterns (described in the current thesis in detail) all occur at the ???S(C=S)S- group, which is the weakest structural unit in TRITT molecule. iii However, polymerization occurs prior to decomposition, if monomer is present. The mass spectrometric analysis suggests that the initial radicals result from the dissociation of TRITT, as well as monomer. Trithiocarbonate end group degradation leading to the formation of thiol terminated chains is also occurring. In the case of NIPAAm polymerization, a peak which may be associated with a cross termination product of the intermediate radical was observed under both 302 nm and 254 nm wavelength irradiation. Interestingly, this peak does not occur in AA polymerization at any wavelength (nor is it expected to form under conventional RAFT conditions and was not observed in previous mass spectrometry studies in thermal or ??-initiated polymerizations of NIPPAm with TRITT) and thus this assignment should be treated as very tentative only.

No description available.

Time-resolved fluorescence was applied to linear and branched pyrene-labelled macromolecules to study their internal dynamics. The linear macromolecules consisted of two series of pyrene-labelled poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)s where the polymer was either end-labelled (Py2-PNIPAM-Y where Y represents the molecular weight of the polymer and equals 6, 8, 14, 25, and 45 kDa) or randomly labelled (Py-PNIPAM-X% where X represents the pyrene content and is equal to 0.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mol%) with pyrene. Four dendrimer generations based on a bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid backbone represented the branched macromolecules where the terminal sites were labelled with pyrene (PyX-GY-COOH where X represents the number of pyrene units incorporated into the Y`th generation dendrimer). A polystyrene-dendrimer hybrid was also synthesized (PyX-GY-PS). The fluorescence decays of the Py2-PNIPAM-Y and Py-PNIPAM-X% samples were acquired in solvents of varying viscosity and were analyzed with the Birks Scheme and the Fluorescence Blob Model (FBM) to yield the excimer formation rate constants and , respectively. The two parameters showed the same trends with varying viscosity, implying that the same information concerning chain dynamics is obtained from the randomly and end-labelled PNIPAM samples. The fluorescence decays of the Py2-PNIPAM-Y samples were acquired in ethanol and in water to determine how pyrene solubility affects the behavior of the polymers in solution, as probed by time-resolved fluorescence. It was found that the decreased pyrene solubility in water led to large amounts of intra- and intermolecular pyrene aggregation. Finally, the pyrene-labelled dendrimers were studied in tetrahydrofuran (THF) to probe the mobility of the chain ends as a function of generation number. The average rate of excimer formation, , obtained from the Model-Free analysis of the fluorescence decays in THF, increased linearly with generation number. This finding, combined with molecular mechanics optimizations, led to the conclusion that excimer formation was greatly enhanced due to the branched nature of the dendrimer molecule. Together, these studies illustrate three different applications of the use of time-resolved fluorescence to characterize the internal dynamics of pyrene-labelled macromolecules.

This dissertation describes the use of spherical micro- and nanoparticles as building blocks for the fabrication of colloidal crystals. The polymer component used in all of the projects that are described herein is poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAm). The polymeric identity of particles composed of this soft, hydrogel material, which is also thermoresponsive, contributes to particle self-assembly to form ordered structures. Specifically, particles that possess a core/shell topology were investigated to allow for the localization of distinct polymeric properties. Chapter 2 examines a characterization technique using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) that was explored to investigate the structure of pNIPAm particles that possess this core/shell topology. Chapters 4-6 investigate strategies to impart both stability and flexibility to the particles so that these properties could assist in particle self-assembly as well as provide a stable construct for the production of robust crystalline materials. Styrene was used as the main monomer component in a copolymer synthesis with NIPAm to achieve poly(styrene-co-N-isopropylacrylamide particles (pS-co-NIPAm) that exhibited both hard and soft properties. Simple drying procedures were used to form crystal assemblies with these particles and the application of these pS-co-NIPAm particle suspensions as processable, photonic inks is also investigated. Chapter 7 examines the ability to physically cross-link colloidal crystals composed of pS-co-NIPAm particles by simple heating methods to produce robust films. The optical properties of these crystal films could be tuned by simple rehydration of the film due to the hydrogel character of the crystal building blocks. Chapters 3 and 5 examine the synthesis and self-assembly strategies of core/shell particles using the properties of pNIPAm shell layers that have been added to different types of core particles (silver or pS-co-NIPAm) for the purposes of fabricating colloidal crystals with enhanced properties using thermal annealing procedures. Chapter 8 explores the use of silver particles as tracers for the characterization of colloidal crystals composed of thermally annealed colloidal crystals composed of pNIPAm hydrogel particles.

Plasma polymerization was used to produce thermoresponsive, hydrogel films of N-Isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) in a single step. Through variation of reactor conditions such as deposition pressure and substrate temperature, physicochemical properties of the hydrogel films such as crosslink density and thus swelling could be controlled. Chemical bonding structures in plasma polymerized NIPAAm were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Contact angle goniometry and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring were used to confirm the existence of a hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition in plasma polymerized NIPAAm thin films, analogous to the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) transition in linear, uncrosslinked chains. Hydrogen bonding in NIPAAm thin films was found to control the moisture uptake capacity; films prepared at higher substrate temperatures and lower reactor pressures, and hence believed to possess greater crosslink density, showed the highest moisture uptake capacity in ambient humidity. Free volume characteristics of NIPAAm thin films were studied using Doppler broadening energy spectroscopy (DBES). Furthermore, a novel, electrophoretic procedure was conceived to incorporate biomolecules such as antibodies in plasma polymerized NIPAAm films for use as sensing layers in vapor phase, surface acoustic wave sensors.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a smart polymer exhibiting an inverse temperature-solubility relationship with a sharp transition at 32&deg / C in its aqueous solution. Due to its reversible thermo-responsive phase transition behavior at around body temperature, PNIPAM promise a potential for a variety of novel applications especially in biotechnology and medicine. PNIPAM can be produced by conventional polymerization methods, as well as by use of ionizing radiation, primarily by gamma which leads mainly to a residual-free crosslinked polymer. In this study, RF plasma (glow discharge) technique is used as a novel synthesis method in solid state leading to higher proportions of linear polymer. Since plasma method is an additive-/initiator-free process, a residual-free polymer is expected. To obtain a better understanding of the plasma induced solid state polymerization mechanism of NIPAM, X-ray data are used. It is found that crystalline structures of Acrylamide (AAm) and NIPAM are isomorphous. Plasma and post plasma aging effects on crystalline structure of NIPAM are followed. From the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) investigations it is observed that post plasma polymerization of NIPAM in solid state proceed by radicalic mechanism. After determination of temperature range in which the radical formed by plasma treatment of NIPAM is highly stable, decay kinetics of the propagating radical in solid state after plasma treatment has been studied in detail.

Gold nanoshells, a material generally composed of a core of silica surrounded by a thin shell of gold, are of great interest due to their unique and tunable optical properties. By varying the shell thickness and core size, the absorption and scattering properties are greatly enhanced. The nanoshells can be made to absorb or scatter light at various regions across the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to the near infrared. The ability to tune the optical properties of nanoshells allows for their potential use in many different areas of research such as optical imaging, tumor ablation, drug delivery, and solar energy conversion. The research in this thesis focused on the synthesis and characterization of two novel gold nanoshell materials containing thermally-responsive, organic-inorganic hybrid layers. One type of material was based on a two-layer particle with a thermally responsive hybrid core of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) copolymerized with 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (MPS) that was then coated with a thin layer of gold. The second material was a three-layer particle with a silica core, a thermally responsive copolymer of NIPAM and MPS middle layer and an outer shell of gold. Various techniques were used to characterize both materials. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to image the particles and dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to determine particle size and the temperature response. Additionally, UV-Vis spectroscopy was used to characterize the optical properties as a function of temperature.

Time-resolved fluorescence was applied to linear and branched pyrene-labelled macromolecules to study their internal dynamics. The linear macromolecules consisted of two series of pyrene-labelled poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)s where the polymer was either end-labelled (Py2-PNIPAM-Y where Y represents the molecular weight of the polymer and equals 6, 8, 14, 25, and 45 kDa) or randomly labelled (Py-PNIPAM-X% where X represents the pyrene content and is equal to 0.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mol%) with pyrene. Four dendrimer generations based on a bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid backbone represented the branched macromolecules where the terminal sites were labelled with pyrene (PyX-GY-COOH where X represents the number of pyrene units incorporated into the Y`th generation dendrimer). A polystyrene-dendrimer hybrid was also synthesized (PyX-GY-PS). The fluorescence decays of the Py2-PNIPAM-Y and Py-PNIPAM-X% samples were acquired in solvents of varying viscosity and were analyzed with the Birks Scheme and the Fluorescence Blob Model (FBM) to yield the excimer formation rate constants and , respectively. The two parameters showed the same trends with varying viscosity, implying that the same information concerning chain dynamics is obtained from the randomly and end-labelled PNIPAM samples. The fluorescence decays of the Py2-PNIPAM-Y samples were acquired in ethanol and in water to determine how pyrene solubility affects the behavior of the polymers in solution, as probed by time-resolved fluorescence. It was found that the decreased pyrene solubility in water led to large amounts of intra- and intermolecular pyrene aggregation. Finally, the pyrene-labelled dendrimers were studied in tetrahydrofuran (THF) to probe the mobility of the chain ends as a function of generation number. The average rate of excimer formation, , obtained from the Model-Free analysis of the fluorescence decays in THF, increased linearly with generation number. This finding, combined with molecular mechanics optimizations, led to the conclusion that excimer formation was greatly enhanced due to the branched nature of the dendrimer molecule. Together, these studies illustrate three different applications of the use of time-resolved fluorescence to characterize the internal dynamics of pyrene-labelled macromolecules.

Microgels are a class of colloids that are mechanically soft, and while in many cases can behave similarly to their hard-sphere counterparts, their interaction potentials are quite different. The softness of the interaction between microgels makes them capable of deformation and compression into more concentrated assemblies. This concentrated regime is interesting because little, if any, experimental work has been done to see how the bulk properties of soft-sphere assemblies deviate from those of hard-spheres at the point where their interaction potentials begin to diverge. In this thesis the effects on assembly phase behavior and dynamics of both particle compression and softness of the interaction potential are addressed. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) microgels are an excellent model system in which to study these effects. The thermoresponsivity of the polymer provides the experimentalist with a dial to tune the volume fraction of an assembly, while maintaining a constant particle number density in the system. Optical microscopy, particle tracking analysis and rheology have been used to investigate the effects of packing and particle structure on equilibrium phase behavior and localized perturbations to the phase of the assembly of this soft-sphere system. It has been elucidated from these experiments and others involving deswelling of large microgel particles in the presence of high concentrations of smaller microgels, that the soft, repulsive interaction between microgels is caused by a longer-range repulsion than was previously believed. The particles are acting on each other from a distance through the osmotic pressure of the assembly, which causes each particle to deswell without coming into direct contact with a neighboring particle.