Self‐Assembled Aptamer‐Grafted Hyperbranched Polymer Nanocarrier for Targeted and Photoresponsive Drug Delivery

Abstract

Photoresponsive materials are emerging as ideal carriers for precise controlled drug delivery owing to their high spatiotemporal selectivity. However, drawbacks such as slow release kinetics, inherent toxicity, and lack of targeting ability hinder their translation into clinical use. We herein constructed a new DNA aptamer-grafted photoresponsive hyperbranched polymer, which can self-assemble into nanoparticles, thereby achieving biocompatibility and target specificity, as well as light-controllable release behavior. Upon UV-irradiation, rapid release induced by disassembly was observed for Nile Red-loaded nanoparticles. Further in vitro cell studies confirmed this delivery system’s specific binding and internalization performance arising from the DNA aptamer corona. The DOX-loaded nanoassembly exhibited selective phototriggered cytotoxicity towards cancer cells, indicating its promising therapeutic effect as a “smart” drug delivery system.

An Efficient Cell-Targeting Drug Delivery System Based on Aptamer-Modified Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles

“…Aptamers are smaller and easier to prepare and modify than monoclonal antibodies, they penetrate tissue better and they show lower toxicity and immunogenicity. Therefore, aptamers are widely used for tumor detection and targeted chemotherapy [11][12][13]. The SELEX method has been used to identify an aptamer, Sgc8 that binds specifically to CEM human acute T lymphocyte leukemia cells [14,15].…”

Photoresponsive Self‐Assembled DNA Nanomaterials: Design, Working Principles, and Applications

“…This molecular photocleavage strategy provides a new approach for precisely and remotely releasing a number of bioactive agents for drug delivery with high temporal resolution. Yang's work has demonstrated cargo release under UV irradiation, applying a UV‐sensitive highly branched polymer as backbone and loaded with DNA aptamer …”

PITTCON 2019 Award Winners

“…The winner of the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award and the Ralph N. Adams Award, Weihong Tan (University of Florida and Hunan University), was present in Angewandte Chemie when he was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with his author profile, and recently with a Communication about an aptamer–polymer nanocarrier for targeted drug delivery …”