AUTHOR=Wang Hanghang , Polara Himanshu , Bhadran Abhi , Shah Tejas , Babanyinah Godwin Kweku , Ma Ziyuan , Calubaquib Erika L. , Miller Justin T. , Biewer Michael C. , Stefan Mihaela C. TITLE=Effect of aromatic substituents on thermoresponsive functional polycaprolactone micellar carriers for doxorubicin delivery JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology VOLUME=15 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2024.1356639 DOI=10.3389/fphar.2024.1356639 ISSN=1663-9812 ABSTRACT=
Amphiphilic functional polycaprolactone (PCL) diblock copolymers are excellent candidates for micellar drug delivery. The functional groups on the backbone significantly affect the properties of PCL. A systematic investigation of the effect of aromatic substituents on the self-assembly of γ-functionalized PCLs and the delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) is presented in this work. Three thermoresponsive amphiphilic diblock copolymers with poly(γ-benzyloxy-ε-caprolactone) (PBnCL), poly(γ-phenyl- ε-caprolactone) (PPhCL), poly(γ-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-ε-caprolactone) (PEtOPhCL), respectively, as hydrophobic block and γ-tri(ethylene glycol) functionalized PCL (PME3CL) as hydrophilic block were prepared through ring-opening polymerization (ROP). The thermoresponsivity, thermodynamic stability, micelle size, morphology, DOX-loading, and release profile were determined. The LCST values of amphiphilic diblock copolymers PME3CL-