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Reduction‐Triggered Transformation of Disulfide‐Containing Micelles at Chemically Tunable Rates
Author(s) -
Deng Zhengyu,
Yuan Shuai,
Xu Ronald X.,
Liang Haojun,
Liu Shiyong
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201802909
Subject(s) - nanocarriers , micelle , chemistry , nanoreactor , drug delivery , combinatorial chemistry , amine gas treating , biophysics , organic chemistry , aqueous solution , biology , catalysis
A dilemma exists between the circulation stability and cargo release/mass diffusion at desired sites when designing delivery nanocarriers and in vivo nanoreactors. Reported herein are disulfide‐crosslinked (DCL) micelles exhibiting reduction‐triggered switching of crosslinking modules and synchronized hydrophobic‐to‐hydrophilic transition. Tumor cell targeted DCL micelles undergo cytoplasmic milieu triggered disulfide cleavage and self‐immolative decaging reactions at chemically adjustable rates, generating primary amine moieties. Extensive amidation reactions with neighboring ester moieties then occur because of the high local concentration and suppression of the apparent amine p K a value within the hydrophobic cores, thus leading to the transformation of crosslinking modules and formation of tracelessly crosslinked (TCL) micelles, with hydrophilic cores, inside live cells. We further integrate this design principle with theranostic nanocarriers for selective intracellular drug transport guided by enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performance.