Recently, interest of electrochemical redox stimuli have grown tremendously because of its easy trigger mode and the significance of the change of potential in biological systems. β-cyclodextrin-ferrocene(β-CD-Fc) linker has been widely investigated in these systems, with applications as molecule machines and drug delivery vehicles. Star amphiphilic copolymers with well-defined and flexible structures are considered to be excellent choices for drug delivery systems, for their unique properties such as lower intrinsic viscosity and high surface reactivity compared with linear analogues.<br/>Driven by the idea that to use star polymers to improve the biocompability and efficiency of the β-CD-Fc-based drug delivery systems, we designed and synthesized star polymer 4-arm-poly(ε- caprolactone)- β-CD(4A PCL-β-CD) and linear polymer polyethylene glycol-Fc (PEG-Fc). They can form non-covalent supramolecular block copolymer 4A PCL-β-CD/Fc-PEG and self-assemble to form micelles (Figure 1).<br/>For the polymer synthesis, PEG-Fc was get from the EDC reaction of methoxy PEG and ferrocenecarboxylic acid, while 4A PCL-β-CD was get from the click reaction of 4A PCL with alkynyl group and β-CD with azide group. As the results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravity analysis (TGA) shown, 4A PCL has lower melting temperature and degree of crystallinity compared with the linear analogues, thus can make the drug vehicles more biocompatible. Besides, we characterized the micelles by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Because the electrochemical activity of the β-CD-Fc linker, the 4A PCL-β-CD/Fc-PEG micelles have potential to be electrochemical responsive and can be applied as potential controlled drug released carriers.

Electrochemical redox responsive micelles based on host-guest interactions and star polymers

249th National Meeting (2015)

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