Polymer provides extended release of estrogen

Abstract

Few people recover completely from spinal cord injuries, and the ones that do tend to be women. This sex difference has led to interest in the use of estrogen, which has been shown to protect neurons and help them grow, as a treatment for spinal cord injury. The challenge for this approach is finding a way to avoid side effects of high estrogen doses by delivering the hormone at low doses over an extended period. Researchers have previously used polymeric nanoparticles to deliver the hormone. But such materials sustain delivery for only a few days or weeks. Now, Ryan J. Gilbert, Edmund F. Palermo, and coworkers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have synthesized a polymer that can release estrogen over much longer periods, perhaps even years. Instead of mixing estrogen with an inert carrier polymer, they incorporate it as part of the polymer (Nat. Commun. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12835-w). Their material is