发展可控的药物缓释装置是材料科学家所面临的挑战之一。Macromolecular Bioscience杂志发表一篇论文称，研究人员William L. Murphy等将一种动态的蛋白质-钙调蛋白（calmodulin）置入了水凝胶的高分子结构当中，合成了一种新型的材料，它可以在受到某种分子刺激的条件下释放出所包裹的药物。
钙调蛋白在触发分子的作用下会发生构型的改变，从而引起水凝胶体积的减小，释放出所包裹的药物成分。科学家们将这种水凝胶放入临床使用的微球当中，这些微球可以在注射的过程中保护水凝胶的几何结构，避免模型药物（model drug）及血管内皮生长因子（vascular endothelial growth factor）受到影响。。
科学家们已经发现有数百种会发生构型变化的蛋白质。所以上面的这种控制药物缓释的方法也可以进一步扩展到更多不同种类的触发分子。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1002/mabi.200900382
PMC:
PMID:
Triggered Drug Release from Dynamic Microspheres via a Protein Conformational Change
William J. King, Nicholas J. Pytel, Kelvin Ng, William L. Murphy
In this study we formed and characterized dynamic hydrogel microspheres in which a protein conformational change was used to control microsphere volume changes and the release of an encapsulated drug. In particular, a specific biochemical ligand, trifluoperazine, induced calmodulin's nanometer scale conformation change, which translated to a 48.7% microsphere volume decrease. This specific, ligand-induced volume change triggered the release of a model drug, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), at pre-determined times. After release from the microspheres, 85.6 ± 10.5% of VEGF was in its native conformation. Taken together, these results suggest that protein conformational change could serve as a useful mechanism to control drug release from dynamic hydrogels.
