Open AccessSynthesis of pH-Sensitive Macromolecular Micelles from Amphiphilic Star Copolymers for Drug Delivery
Author(s) -
Lin Ye,
Lili Yu,
Li Li,
Jiahui Kou
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1575/1/012161
Subject(s) - copolymer , micelle , atom transfer radical polymerization , methacrylate , amphiphile , polymer chemistry , polymerization , drug delivery , 2 hydroxyethyl methacrylate , materials science , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer , aqueous solution
Stimuli-responsive copolymers are a significant class of smart materials extensively studied for drug delivery systems. Two novel amphiphilic four-arm star copolymers poly(ε-caprolactone)-b-poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (4sPCL- b -PHMEA) and poly(ε-caprolactone)-b-poly(diethylaminoethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate (4sPCL- b -PDEAM- b -PHEMA) with pH-responsive were designed and synthesized by a combination of ring-opening polymerization (ROP) and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The structure of the copolymers and the particle size of macromolecular micelles were investigated by FT-IR and DLS, and the controlled release kinetics of two copolymer micelles was detected using adriamycin (DOX), a hydrophobic antitumor drug. The results showed that, the both micelles have appropriate particle size and can be used for DOX carrier, the DLC of 4sPCL- b -PHEMA and 4sPCL- b -PDEAM- b -PHEMA micelles were 21.30% and 27.25%, respectively. The release process showed that, comparing to the diblock star copolymer, triblock star copolymer had more significant pH-sensitivity. The cumulative release percentage of DOX in triblock micelles gradually increased with the decrease of pH. The cumulative release percentage of 14 h at pH 2.2 was about 80%, which had significant pH-sensitivity. A pH-sensitive four-arm star copolymer was synthesized, which can be used as drug delivery system for further research.