Doxorubicin Imprinted Photoluminescent Polymer as a pH-Responsive Nanocarrier

In this work, an innovative doxorubicin (DOX) imprinted photoluminescent polymer via the precipitation free-radical polymerization strategy was developed based on graphene quantum dots as a pH-responsive nanocarrier. The prepared materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and dynamic light scattering techniques. Binding kinetics of DOX established specific recognition binding sites in the photoluminescent nanoscale molecularly imprinted polymer (PLMIP) structure. In vitro drug release behaviors exhibited a pH-controlled release in a sustained manner for the prepared photoluminescent nanocarriers. Due to the presence of pseudopeptide skeletons in the nanocarrier and a positively charged structure, the cytotoxicity study indicated that a DOX-loaded nanocarrier against human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cell lines has notable cytotoxicity. According to the obtained results, the prepared pH-responsive PLMIP has the potential to be employed as an anticancer and biodetection platform.