Smart multifunctional polymeric micelles are in urgent
demand for
future cancer diagnosis and therapy. In this paper, doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded
folic acid (FA)-targeting and pH-responsive cell membrane mimetic
mixed micelles of P(DMAEMA-co-MaPCL) (PCD) and FA-P(MPC-co-MaPCL) (PMCF) (mass ratio 5/5) were prepared by a dialysis
method. The micelle size, morphology, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD),
pH responsiveness, in vitro DOX release, cytotoxicity,
and cellular uptake were studied in detail. The results indicated
that DOX could be efficiently loaded into mixed micelles (PDMCF micelles),
and the DOX-loaded mixed micelles (DOX@PDMCF micelles) exhibited a
size of 150 nm and pH-responsive DOX release in an extended period.
Furthermore, the DOX@PDMCF micelles could efficiently suppress the
proliferation of tumor cells, HeLa and MCF-7 cells. Our data suggest
that the DOX@PDMCF micelles have the potential to be applied in tumor
therapy, especially for treating various folate receptor overexpressed
tumors.
A series of mixed zwitterionic micelles were fabricated, which showed enhanced cancerous cellular penetration and increased DOX release due to the protonation of tertiary amine and the breakage of the disulfide bond.
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