AUTHOR=Pang Zekun , Zhou Jiayan , Sun Chunyang 

TITLE=Ditelluride-Bridged PEG-PCL Copolymer as Folic Acid-Targeted and Redox-Responsive Nanoparticles for Enhanced Cancer Therapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2020.00156

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2020.00156

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>The development of the nanosized delivery systems with targeting navigation and efficient cargo release for cancer therapy has attracted great attention in recent years. Herein, a folic acid (FA) modified PEGylated polycaprolactone containing ditelluride linkage was synthesized through a facile coupling reaction. The hydrophobic doxorubicin (DOX) can be encapsulated into the polymeric micelles, and such nanoparticles (F-TeNP<sub>DOX</sub>) exhibited redox-responsive drug release under abundant glutathione (GSH) condition due to the degradation of ditelluride bonds. In addition, flow cytometric analyses showed that the FA ligands on F-TeNP<sub>DOX</sub> could facilitate their cellular uptake in 4T1 breast cancer cells. Therefore, F-TeNP<sub>DOX</sub> led to the promoted drug accumulation and enhanced growth inhibition on 4T1 tumor <italic>in vivo</italic>. The obtained results suggest F-TeNP<sub>DOX</sub> excellent potential as nanocarriers for anticancer drug delivery.</p>