Reactive polymersomes represent av ersatile artificial cargo carrier system that can facilitate an immediate release in response to aspecific stimulus.The herein presented oxidation-sensitive polymersomes feature at ime-delayed release mechanism in an oxidative environment, whichc an be precisely adjusted by either tuning the membrane thickness or partial pre-oxidation. These polymeric vesicles are conveniently prepared by PISA allowing the straightforwarda nd effective in situ encapsulation of cargo molecules,asshown for dyes and enzymes.Kinetic studies revealed acritical degree of oxidation causing the destabilization of the membrane,w hile no release of the cargo is observed beforehand. The encapsulation of glucose oxidase directly transforms these polymersomes into glucose-sensitive vesicles,a ss mall molecules including sugars can passively penetrate their membrane. Considering the ease of preparation, these polymersomes represent av ersatile platform for the confinement and burst release of cargo molecules after ap recisely adjustable time span in the presence of specific triggers,s uch as H 2 O 2 or glucose.

Cationic polymers have been widely studied for non-viral gene delivery due to their ability to bind genetic material and to interact with cellular membranes. However, their charged nature carries the risk of increased cytotoxicity and interaction with serum proteins, limiting their potential in vivo application. Therefore, hydrophilic or anionic shielding polymers are applied to counteract these effects. Herein, a series of micelle-forming and micelle-shielding polymers were synthesized via RAFT polymerization. The copolymer poly[(n-butyl acrylate)-b-(2-(dimethyl amino)ethyl acrylamide)] (P(nBA-b-DMAEAm)) was assembled into cationic micelles and different shielding polymers were applied, i.e., poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), poly(4-acryloyl morpholine) (PNAM) or P(NAM-b-AA) block copolymer. These systems were compared to a triblock terpolymer micelle comprising PAA as the middle block. The assemblies were investigated regarding their morphology, interaction with pDNA, cytotoxicity, transfection efficiency, polyplex uptake and endosomal escape. The naked cationic micelle exhibited superior transfection efficiency, but increased cytotoxicity. The addition of shielding polymers led to reduced toxicity. In particular, the triblock terpolymer micelle convinced with high cell viability and no significant loss in efficiency. The highest shielding effect was achieved by layering micelles with P(NAM-b-AA) supporting the colloidal stability at neutral zeta potential and completely restoring cell viability while maintaining moderate transfection efficiencies. The high potential of this micelle-layer-combination for gene delivery was illustrated for the first time.

In contrast to covalent polymer brushes, directional supramolecular forces such as hydrogen bonds or π-π-interactions govern the formation of supramolecular polymer bottlebrushes (SPBs) in a self-assembly process starting from single...

Strong directional hydrogen bonds represent a suitable supramolecular force to drive the one-dimensional (1D) aqueous self-assembly of polymeric amphiphiles resulting in cylindrical polymer brushes. However, our understanding of the kinetics in these assembly processes is still limited. We here demonstrate that the obtained morphologies for our recently reported benzene tris-urea and tris-peptide conjugates are strongly pathway-dependent. A controlled transfer from solutions in organic solvents to aqueous environments enabled a rate-dependent formation of kinetically trapped but stable nanostructures ranging from small cylindrical or spherical objects (<50 nm) to remarkably large fibers (>2 μm). A detailed analysis of the underlying assembly mechanism revealed a cooperative nature despite the steric demands of the polymers. Nucleation is induced by hydrophobic interactions crossing a critical water content, followed by an elongation process due to the strong hydrogen bonds. These findings open an interesting new pathway to control the length of 1D polymer nanostructures.

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) represents a powerful technique for the preparation of nanostructures comprising various morphologies. Herein, we demonstrate that the recently introduced monomer N-acryloylthiomorpholine (NAT) features a unique self-assembly behaviour...