Facile Preparation of Reduction-Responsive Micelles Based on Biodegradable Amphiphilic Polyurethane with Disulfide Bonds in the Backbone

作者：Peng Zhang, Jiaying Hu, Leran Bu, Hena Zhang, Baixiang Du, Caihong Zhu, Yuling Li · 发表于：Polymers · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.3390/polym11020262 · 被引用次数：18 · 研究领域：Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics、Dendrimers and Hyperbranched Polymers、Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery

In this paper, we synthesized a biodegradable amphiphilic polymer of polyurethane-polyethylene glycol with disulfide bonds in the main chain (PEG-PU(SS)-PEG). DLS and SEM showed that the polymer could self-assemble into micelles in aqueous solution and could be used to load the hydrophobic anticancer drug DOX. Intriguingly, drug release in vitro indicated that DOX-loaded PEG-PU(SS)-PEG micelles had good stability under the extracellular physiological environment, but the disulfide bonds broke rapidly and DOX was released quickly under the intracellular reducing conditions. CCK-8 assays showed that DOX-loaded PEG-PU(SS)-PEG micelles had a high in vitro antitumor activity in C6 cells, whereas blank PEG-PU(SS)-PEG micelles were nontoxic to C6 cells. It was also found that there was strong and persistent accumulation of DOX-loaded PEG-PU(SS)-PEG as compared with PEG-PU-PEG both by the cell internalization tests and the flow cytometry measurements. Hence, PEG-PU(SS)-PEG micelles will have a potential use for clinical treatment of cancer in the future.