Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Synthesis and Characterization of an Aspirin-fumarate Prodrug that Inhibits NFκB Activity and Breast Cancer Stem Cells
Published on: January 18, 2017
Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Schiff Base Bond-Linked pH-Responsive Doxorubicin Prodrug Based on
Yinglei Zhai1, Xing Zhou2, Zhiqiang Zhang3
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medical Devices, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China. yingleizhai@syphu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The side effects of doxorubicin (DOX) extremely limit its application in the treatment of malignant tumors. Nano-sized polymeric drugs based on the acidic microenvironment of tissular- or intra- tumor have attracted ample attention because of their potential in reducing side effects. In this research, an amphiphilic diblock copolymer based on poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) and functionalized polycaprolactone (PCL) was synthesized and utilized as the drug carrier. DOX was chemically conjugated with the polymer via acid-cleavable imine bonds to obtain a novel pH-sensitive DOX prodrug (mPEG-PCL-Imi-DOX). mPEG-PCL-Imi-DOX (24.2 wt % DOX content) formed micelles with an average diameter of 125 nm through a simple solvent evaporation method. The in vitro release profile demonstrated that DOX release of the prodrug micelles was pH-responsive and able to be accelerated with the decrease of pH. In vitro cytotoxicity assay tests revealed that the pH-sensitive DOX prodrug micelles exhibited relatively lower toxicity and similar antitumor efficacy towards MCF-7 cells compared with free DOX. Hence, the DOX prodrug micelles with imine bonds can offer a carrier with great potential for chemo-therapeutics.
Related Concept Videos
Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
Peptide Bonds
Prodrugs
Prodrugs help overcome...
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...
DNA Base Pairing
Bond Energies and Bond Lengths

