Abstract Combination therapy has been a standard strategy in the clinical tumor treatment. We have demonstrated that combination of Tetradrine (Tet) and Cisplatin (CDDP) presented marked synergistic anticancer activity, but inevitable side effects limit their therapeutic concentration. Considering different physicochemical pharmacokinetic properties two drugs, we loaded them into nanovehicle to...

A general and simple method was presented for preparing supramolecular hydrogels to deliver anticancer drugs. In this system, hydrophobic anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) was loaded into poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-b-PCL) amphiphilic block copolymer micelles by hydrophobic interaction. The drug loaded micelles were then mixed with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) solution to generat...

In this work, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) semicrystalline networks were prepared by photo-cross-linking of methacrylated macromonomers with different molecular weights and in proportions to obtain amphiphilic materials capable displaying properly designed shape memory effects. Networks based on PCL 10 kDa PEG 3 showed suitable thermal mechanical properties well-separa...

In order to delineate the location of the tumor both before and during operation, we developed targeted bi-functional polymeric micelles for magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence imaging in liver tumors. Hydrophobic superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were loaded into the polymeric micelles through self-assembly of an amphiphilic block copolymer poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(ϵ-c...

A folate conjugated ternary copolymer, FA-PEG-PEI-PCL, of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(ethylene imine) (PEI), and poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) was synthesized. The copolymer self-assembled into cationic micelles capable of co-delivering siRNA and the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). This dual functional nanocarrier demonstrated low cytotoxicity and high performance in drug/siRNA delivery. ...

Star-shaped polymer micelles have good stability against dilution with water, showing promising application in drug delivery. In this work, biodegradable micelles made from star-shaped poly(ε-caprolactone)/poly(ethylene glycol) (PCL/PEG) copolymer were prepared and used to deliver doxorubicin (Dox) in vitro and in vivo. First, an acrylated monomethoxy poly (ethylene glycol)-poly(ε-caprolactone)...

We describe the fabrication of porous foams with shape memory triggering at body temperature. Employing a modified porogenleaching technique, functionalized poly(3-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) macromers are crosslinked via thiol–ene chemistry to generate highly porous foam scaffolds with shape memory capacity. The temperature at which shape change of these scaffolds occur...

Micelles, with the structure of amphiphilic molecules including a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail, are recently developed as nanocarriers for the delivery of drugs with poor solubility. In addition, micelles have shown many advantages, such as enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effects, prolonged circulation times, and increased endocytosis through surface modification. In this stu...

Polymersomes made of amphiphilic diblock copolymers are generally regarded as having higher physical and chemical stability than liposomes composed phospholipids. This enhanced arises from the molecular weight polymer constituents. Despite their increased stability, bilayers solubilized by detergents in a similar manner to lipid bilayers. In this work, we evaluated poly(ethylene glycol)-block-p...