Abstract
Stimuli-responsive polymeric micelles as a drug delivery vehicle have made important contributions to the development of controllable drug release. Here we develop pH-responsive polymeric micelles with tunable aggregation-induced emission and controllable drug release. Polymeric micelles in nano-sized spherical shape (about 140 nm) were mediated via hydrogen-bonding interaction between phenol groups of 4,4′-(1,2-diphenylethene-1,2-diyl)diphenol (TPE-2OH) and amine groups of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-linear polyethylenimine-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-PEI-PCL). The results show that polymeric micelles are pH-responsive with turn-on fluorescence and sustained drug release inside cells, which has hope in simultaneously achieving cell imaging and cancer therapy.
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Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21603196, 51703209, and 21525523), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2017CFB217), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Nos. CUG170601 and CUGL170406).
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Dai, Y., Wu, D., Lin, S. et al. pH-responsive polymeric micelles with tunable aggregation-induced emission and controllable drug release. J Nanopart Res 21, 5 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-018-4447-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-018-4447-4