Zhigang Xie
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, Jilin 130022, P. R. China
Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) play a key role in nanoscale formulations for bioimaging, cancer treatment and theranostics. We designed and synthesized a series of hydrophobic polymers (P1-6) with different pendent groups via one-step multicomponent Passerini reaction. These polymers possessed similar molecular structures and various biomedical functions. Interestingly, they could self-assemble into stable NPs in aqueous media. All formed NPs were redox-sensitive because of the existence of disulfide bonds in the backbone. The stability of NPs in aqueous media with or without glutathione was systematically evaluated and compared. The optical performance, including fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), was characterized in different conditions for those polymers with fluorescent components. Importantly, all formed NPs showed good cytocompatibility towards HeLa cells, and different biological functions, including drug loading and delivery, bioimaging with variable fluorescence, and photodynamic activity, as evidenced by experiments in vitro and in vivo [1]. These results demonstrate that the great potential of multicomponent reaction to customize versatile polymeric nanoparticles for biomedical applications.
References
[1] W. Lin, W. Zhang, T. Sun, S. Liu, Y. Zhu and Z. Xie, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 9, 29612 (2017