Biomedical Engineering – From Theory to Applications

190
R*
M M
M M
MR*M
O
O O
O
M O
R*
M
M M
M M
O
M
M MO
O
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 4
+
Biomedical Engineering – From Theory to Applications
M O
M
M M
O O M
M
M M
M O
M M
O
M
M MO
O
Fig. 5. Kinetic mechanism for the inverse microemulsion polymerization.
4. Bioactive nanosystems
Currently the development of polymeric complexes have bioactive properties, i.e. that are
able to interact with cellular mechanisms has grown considerably because of the many
applications that can take the coupling of biological receptors within the polymer matrices.
Among these recipients are: acetylcholine receptor, cytokine receptor, insulin receptor T cell
receptor, recipient of transforming growth factor beta, receptor phosphotyrosine
phosphatase, receptor guanylyl cyclase, muscarinic receptor, M1 muscarinic receptor,
muscarinic receptor M2, muscarinic receptor M3, M4 muscarinic receptor, nicotinic receptor,
mineralocorticoid receptor.
But a biological receptor that has attracted interest from the scientific community is folic
acid receptor (Candau & Zekhinini, 1986). The protein encoded by this gene is a member of
the folate receptor family (FOLRE). The members of this family of genes have a high affinity
for folic acid and reduction of various folic acid derivatives, in addition to mediate the
delivery of 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate inside cells. This gene is composed of 7 exons, exons 1
to 4 encode the 5 'UTR and exons 4 through 7 encode the open reading frame. Due to the
O
O
O
O
M
M