Wei Hua, Wang Christine E, Tan Nicholas, Boydston Andrew J, Pun Suzie H
Department of Bioengineering and Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States.
Department of Chemistry University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States.
ACS Macro Lett. 2015 Sep 15;4(9):938-941. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00565. Epub 2015 Aug 17.
Polymers with advanced architectures can now be readily and reproducibly synthesized using controlled living polymerization. These materials are attractive as potential drug carriers due to their tunable size, versatile methods of drug incorporation and release, and ease of functionalization with targeting ligands. In this work, we report the design and development of macrocyclic brush, or "sunflower," polymers, synthesized by controlled radical polymerization of hydrophilic "petals" from a cyclic multimacroinitiator "core." These nanostructures can be synthesized with low polydispersity and controlled sizes depending on polymerization time. We further demonstrate that folate-functionalized sunflower polymers facilitate receptor-mediated uptake into cancer cells. These materials therefore show potential as drug carriers for anti-cancer therapies.
如今，利用可控活性聚合反应能够轻松且可重复地合成具有先进结构的聚合物。这些材料因其尺寸可调、药物载入和释放方法多样以及易于用靶向配体进行功能化修饰等特点，作为潜在的药物载体颇具吸引力。在这项工作中，我们报告了大环刷状聚合物（即“向日葵”聚合物）的设计与开发，它是通过从环状多宏观引发剂“核心”对亲水性“花瓣”进行可控自由基聚合反应合成的。这些纳米结构可以以低多分散性合成，并且根据聚合时间具有可控的尺寸。我们进一步证明，叶酸功能化的向日葵聚合物能够促进受体介导的进入癌细胞的摄取。因此，这些材料显示出作为抗癌治疗药物载体的潜力。
