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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Preparation and Characterization of Individual and Multi-drug Loaded Physically Entrapped Polymeric Micelles
Published on: August 28, 2015
Reduction-responsive core-shell-corona micelles based on triblock copolymers: novel synthetic strategy,
1State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University , Lanzhou 730000, China.
Abstract:
A facile and effective approach was established for fabricating core-shell-corona micelles by self-assembly of poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(acrylic acid-co-tert-butyl acrylate)-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG43-b-P(AA30-co-tBA18)-b-PCL53) triblock copolymer, synthesized via a combination of ring-opening polymerization (ROP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), click chemistry, and hydrolyzation. The prenanovehicles with three different hydrolysis degrees from PEG43-b-PtBA48-b-PCL53 were developed to evaluate the drug loading capacity (DLC) and drug encapsulation efficiency (DEE). After cross-linking with a disulfide bond to regulate the drug release kinetics, the spherical core-shell-corona micelles with average diameter of 52 ± 4 nm were obtained in aqueous solution. The reduction-responsive cross-linked micelles showed a slow sustained release in normal physiological conditions and a rapid release upon exposure to simulated tumor intracellular conditions. In addition, the cytotoxic analysis and HepG2 cell growth inhibition assays demonstrated their remarkable biocompatibility and similar excellent anticancer activity as the free doxorubicin (DOX), which has also been revealed by the confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) analysis. So the reduction-sensitive core-shell-corona micelles are expected to be promising tumor microenvironment-responsive nanovehicles for hydrophobic drugs by glutathione (GSH) triggering.
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