| Nanomaterials are widely used in pharmaceutical industry because they have exhibited unique features such as quantum size effect, small size effect, and surface effect. Drug carriers can enhance the solubilization of various drugs of poor aqueous solubilities, improve the bioavailability of drugs, and reduce drug side effects in chemotherapy.Among all the nanomaterials, polymeric micelles have attracted much attention as drug delivery carriers because they can be easily synthesized and modified, and have high drug loading capacity and adjustable size. The combination of the characteristics of cancer cells to design of polymer can help develop smart drug delivery systems.The polymeric micelles were prepared from an amphiphilic polymer, poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-g-mannose (PGMA-Mannose). Doxorubicin (DOX), an anticancer drug, was loaded into the micelles during the micellization. Structure of PGMA-Mannose was confirmed by 1H NMR and FT-IR. The critical micelle concentration of PGMA-Mannose was determined. TEM and DLS were used to investigate the morphology of micelles, and it turned out that the polymer could self-assemble into spherical micelles, which were stable under physiological conditions.An anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), was encapsulated into the micelles during the micellization, and could be released rapidly in acidic condition. The specificity of cellular uptake of the micelles by two different cell lines was investigated using confocal laser scanning microscopy and the MTT assay. The DOX-loaded micelles were efficiently trapped by mannose-receptor-overexpressing cancer cells MDA-MB-231, while mannose-receptor-poor cells HEK293 showed much lower endocytosis towards the micelles under the same conditions. Thus, the DOX-loaded micelles displayed higher cytotoxicity to MDA-MB-231 cancer cells as compared with free DOX. The present study demonstrates that the PGMA-Mannose micelles are a promising targeted drug delivery system for cancer therapy. |
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