Amphiphilic Homopolymer Vesicles as Unique Nano-Carriers for Cancer Therapy

Abstract

A unique polymersome from amphiphilic, norbornene-derived thiobarbiturate homopolymers (NDTH) and its application as nanocarrier for cancer therapy are elaborately discussed. Various experiments like structural characterizations, control studies, cell viability studies, encapsulation studies, and MTT assay against 4T cancer cells are performed on these NDTH polymersomes to substantiate our claims. All of these results demonstrate that these self-assembled NDTH vesicles have great scope in the world of medicine, and they also symbolize promising carriers for the stimuli-triggered intracellular delivery of hydrophobic drugs. ■ INTRODUCTIONThe field of polymer vesicles (polymersomes) has the phenomenal record of consistent development over the last ten years. 1−3 The ability of amphiphilic block copolymers to self-assemble in selective solvents has been widely studied. 4 The self-assembled polymersomes are at the forefront of this nanotechnological revolution. 5−10 The current research theme of soft-nanotechnology is using polymersomes in the medical applications as nontoxic and targeted drug-delivery agents. 11 Though several types of nanocarriers have been proposed for biomedical purposes, 12,13 polymersomes (structures similar to lipid vesicles) represent an excellent candidate for medical applications. 14−16 These structures are more stable than liposomes but retain their low immunogenicity. But, we are here very specific among the polymersomes formed by the self-assembly of amphiphilic homopolymers, 17−21 for their fundamental perspectives along with their potential applications in drug delivery, nanotechnology and as model systems of biomembranes. 22−27 Self-assembly due to the strong hydrogen bonding nature, remains a subject of interest in the field of supramolecular chemistry. 28 Pioneering work in recognition-induced polymersomes (RIPs) are well-known in the literature. These RIPs are spontaneously formed from a threepoint hydrogen bonding recognition dyads. However, these recognition sensitive structures cannot be used in biomedical applications, due to the complex synthesis and the use of nonpolar media.Living ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is more attractive due to the exceptional functional group tolerance of the Grubbs' catalyst employed in the polymerization process. 29−37 Here we have come up with a pH-and lipidsensitive polymersomes from a new molecular architecture, an amphiphilic, norbornene-derived thiobarbiturate homopolymers, NDTH. On the basis of the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the solvent, the molecular orientation of NDTH is systematically modified. The role of hydrophilic headgroup is enacted by the thiobarbiturate functionality of each monomer unit in NDTH while the norbornene backbone behaves as a hydrophobic moiety. Polymersomes formed by the hydrophilic thiobarbiturate head groups attached to each repeating unit of the hydrophobic norbornene backbone will have greater stability and also are capable of spontaneously responding to their environmental conditions, s...

Self-assemblies of amphiphilic homopolymers: synthesis, morphology studies and biomedical applications

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Enhancing Cell Nucleus Accumulation and DNA Cleavage Activity of Anti-Cancer Drug via Graphene Quantum Dots

“…To this end, various nanostructured materials, such as carbon nanotubes3, polymeric nanoconjugates45, nanoparticles etc 67. have been explored, especially in cancer therapy.…”

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