Ultrasound Responsive Carbon Monoxide Releasing Micelle

Carbon monoxide releasing molecules (CORMs) have been intensively studied in the past decade due to the therapeutic effects of CO. The potential to control the release of CO to a specific target is one of the major advantages of CORM. In this work an ultrasound responsive micelle with pluronic as the shell and CORM-2 as the core were developed. The micelle released CO in the presence of cysteine. After the CO release stopped, applying ultrasound to the micelle suspension produced additional CO. About 1/3 of total CO can be controllably released by ultrasound. The mechanism of the ultrasound induced CO release is interpreted by the reaction between cysteine and CORM-2 inside the micelle.