Scientific Reports (Jun 2017)

Smart pH-sensitive nanoassemblies with cleavable PEGylation for tumor targeted drug delivery

  • Guanren Zhao,
  • Ling Long,
  • Lina Zhang,
  • Mingli Peng,
  • Ting Cui,
  • Xiaoxun Wen,
  • Xing Zhou,
  • Lijun Sun,
  • Ling Che

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03111-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract A new acidly sensitive PEGylated polyethylenimine linked by Schiff base (PEG-s-PEI) was designed to render pH-sensitive PEGylation nanoassemblies through multiple interactions with indomethacin and docetaxel (DTX). DTX nanoassemblies driven by PEG-s-PEI thus formulated exhibited an excellent pH-sensitivity PEGylation cleavage performance at extracellular pH of tumor microenvironment, compared to normal tissues, thereby long circulated in blood but were highly phagocytosed by tumor cells. Consequently, this smart pH-sensitive PEGylation cleavage provided an efficient strategy to target tumor microenvironment, in turn afforded superior therapeutic outcome in anti-tumor activity.