The objective of polymer drug-delivery is to preferentially accumulate at the diseased site and deposit a large payload of therapeutic. If these requirements are met, polymer-therapeutics have the potential to increase drug efficacy, reduce side effects and improve patient compliance. Current state-of-the-art techniques used to monitor the <i>in vivo</i> behavior of polymers involve qualitative fluorescence imaging, several blood draws, and the sacrifice of numerous animals followed by arduous analysis of harvested tissue. These techniques are extremely invasive and give a one-time “snapshot”, which only provides rudimentary information of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME) of the material. Therefore, a rapid, non-invasive technique that provides real-time, continuous feedback of the interaction between a polymer and the body is necessary to optimize drug-delivery. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) are used to non-invasively visualize how polymers navigate through the body. Furthermore, tomographic imaging provides real-time kinetic information on the pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) behavior of each polymer. We evaluate two key pharmacokinetic parameters for each polymer: blood circulation, and tumor accumulation. Factors such as molecular weight, charge, and biocompatibility were investigated for enhance circulation and tumor accumulation.

Radiolabeled polymers to probe the enhanced permeability and retention effect

249th National Meeting (2015)

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