Nanodevices in which a guest is trapped by “molecular gates” within a support and can be released by a specific trigger, are intensively explored.

Ramón Martínez-Máñez, Universidad de Valencia, Spain, and colleagues designed a nanodevice that releases its entrapped cargo with different delivery profiles depending on the enzymes used. When the amide moiety of the gate molecule is hydrolyzed with an amidase, the entrapped cargo dye is released gradually and only partially. The treatment with urease, which hydrolyzes the gate molecule closer to the support, results in delayed, but near total release of the cargo dye. Simultaneous treatment of the nanodevice with both enzymes shows immediate and complete release, which indicates a synergistic effect.

Furthermore, the authors show that the nanodevice has potential as a drug carrier, as it is internalized by cells and releases its cargo within.

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• Dual Enzyme-Triggered Controlled Release on Capped Nanometric Silica Mesoporous Supports,
  A. Agostini, L. Mondragón, C. Coll, E. Aznar, M. D. Marcos, R. Martínez-Máñez, F. Sancenón, J. Soto, E. Pérez-Payá, P. Amorós,
  ChemistryOpen 2012, 1, 17–20.
  DOI: 10.1002/open.201200003

ChemistryOpen – the first society-owned, open-access, chemistry journal – is a journal of ChemPubSoc Europe published by Wiley-VCH.