Hypoxia-Responsive Polymeric Micelles for Enhancing Cancer Treatment
Huayang Feng, Dandan Chu, Fan Yang, Zhanrong Li, Bingbing Fan, Lin Jin, Jingguo Li
Abstract
Polymeric drug vectors have shown great potentials in cancer therapy. However, intelligent controlled release of drugs has become a major challenge in nanomedicine research. Hypoxia-responsive polymeric micelles have received widespread attention in recent years due to the inherent hypoxic state of tumor tissue. In this study, a novel diblock polymer consisting of polyethylene glycol and poly[glutamic acid (3-(2-nitro-imidazolyl)-propyl)] was synthesized and self-assembled into hypoxia-responsive polymeric micelles for the controlled release of doxorubicin (DOX). The cell experiments demonstrated that DOX-loaded micelles had a stronger killing capacity on tumor cells under hypoxic conditions, while the blank micelles had good biocompatibility. All the experiments indicate that our hypoxia-responsive polymeric micelles have a great potential for enhanced cancer treatment.