AbstractsEngineering

Nitric Oxide (NO) has been used in many biomedical applications since 1992, and known as one of the most important mediators of intra and extracellular processes. It is also a major target of the pharmaceutical industry. NO utility is limited by its short half-life, instability during storage, and potential toxicity. Polymeric nanocarriers are currently being used for NO delivery to overcome these limitations. However, in some application its stability and half time to deliver NO still become the major issues. The improvement of the stability and capability of NO by using nanoparticles will become necessary in the future. The objective of this thesis is to explore the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique to synthesis of well-defined, biocompatible, and stable polymeric nanocarriers for NO delivery. Core Crosslinked Star (CCS) polymeric nanoparticles with different functionality in the core had been prepared and used as NO carriers. The potent of NO nanoparticles in biomedical application and as an antibacterial agent was observed through NO release activity and its stability analyses. The result of this study suggested that the core crosslinked star (CCS) polymer nanoparticles have significant potent as NO carriers with high concentration of NO release and good stability.