(249b) From Drug Self-Assembly to Supramolecular Medicine

Drugs are a special class of chemical substances that produce a biological effect when administered to a living organism. For use in medical treatments, nearly all drugs need to be formulated in order to maximize its therapeutic effect while minimizing the possible side effects. Often times, the therapeutic agent is considered as the functional cargo to be delivered, and its potential as molecular building blocks has been largely ignored. In this work, I detail the use of drugs as effective molecular building units to create well-defined supramolecular nanostructures that contain a 100% drug loading for systemic delivery as well as supramolecular hydrogels for local treatment of human diseases. Our studies show that molecular design, assembly conditions and kinetic pathways are all critical factors that govern the resultant nanostructures and consequently the therapeutic outcomes. These findings have led us to believe that self-assembly of drugs offers an innovative yet simple way for drug formulation, producing drug-based nanomaterials for use in a wide variety of biomedical settings.