Figure 12.

Mechanisms of pH-dependent drug capture and release from polypeptide multilayer nanofilms. PLL/PLGA multilayer nanofilms are assembled at a pH (eg, pH 4.0 or 10.0) away from the drug-loading pH, followed by incubating in a drug (eg, gentamicin, MB, or cefazolin) solution of pH 7.0 and releasing the captured drugs by altering the pH of releasing media.

Key: stretched PLL, coiled PLL, stretched PLGA, coiled PLGA, positively-charged drug, negatively-charged drug.

Abbreviations: MB, methylene blue; PLGA, poly-l-glutamic acid; PLL, poly-l-lysine.