Co-Delivery of Paclitaxel and siRNA with pH-Responsive Polymeric Micelles for Synergistic Cancer Therapy

Due to the complex physiological characteristics of tumors, chemotherapy or gene therapy alone cannot completely kill tumor cells. Therefore, combining chemotherapy with gene therapy for combination therapy is the key to solving this problem. However, there are still significant challenges in how to simultaneously deliver and rapidly release the drugs and siRNA into cancer cells. In this work, a triblock copolymer was synthesized to co-deliver siRNA and paclitaxel to tumor cells. This system has an acid-sensitive subsurface layer, which can not only load siRNA to prevent premature drug release but also has good controlled release performance. In vitro experiments showed that polymeric vectors can efficiently deliver siRNA and paclitaxel simultaneously into tumor cells for rapid release within the tumor cells. This study reveals that this novel polymeric micelle is a suitable vector for the codelivery of chemotherapeutic drugs and siRNA to cancer cells, representing an important advance in nanotechnology, nanomedicine, drug delivery, and cancer therapy.