ROS-Sensitive Polymer Micelles for Selective Degradation in Primary Human Monocytes from Patients with Active IBD

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in inflamed areas of the gastrointestinal tract and in circulating immune cells, providing novel opportunities for targeted drug delivery. In the recent experiments, oxidation-responsive polymeric nanostructures selectively degrade in the presence of H₂ O₂ . Based on these results, it is hypothesized that such degradation process can be triggered in a similar way by the incubation with stimulated monocytes isolated from patients with IBD. A first indication is given by a significant correlation between excessive ROS and degradation of micelles in monocytes isolated from healthy individuals after phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) stimulation. But even if the ROS-sensitive micelles are incubated with nonstimulated monocytes from patients with active IBD, a spontaneous degradation is observed in contrast to micelles incubated with monocytes from healthy donors. The findings indicate that the thioether-based micelles are indeed promising for selective drug release in the presence of activated immune cells.