Biamphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles as a multifunctional platform for anticancer drug delivery

Novel micelles from biamphiphilic triblock copolymer poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PEG-b-PCL-b-PAA) as new multifunctional nanocarriers to delivery anticancer drugs were evaluated. The well-defined triblock copolymers prepared by controlled polymerizations self-assembled into micelles in aqueous solution with a hydrodynamic radius of 13 nm as obtained by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and a low critical micellization concentration of 2.9 x 10(-4) g/L. The hydrophobic PCL cores of micelles were applied to load hydrophobic drug doxorubicin and the functional PAA subcoronas clung to the micellar core were used to carry cisplatin through covalent interaction. The results indicated that two anticancer drugs had been loaded by different mechanism either separately or simultaneously. Drug loading content and efficiency as well as release profiles were evaluated. Furthermore, internalization and cytotoxicity of the anticancer nanoparticles against human bladder carcinoma EJ cells were studied. The biamphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles provided not only biocompatibility and biodegradability, but also abilities for loading single and dual anticancer drugs, indicating that this was a useful multifunctional platform for anticancer drug delivery. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 96A: 330-340, 2011.