Amphiphilic block copolymer micelles with fluorescence as nano-carriers for doxorubicin delivery
Abstract
Well-defined and nontoxic core–shell polymeric micelles, containing fluorescence units, were employed for efficient drug delivery of doxorubicin (DOX). The self-assembled structures were generated from triblock copolymers of poly(ε-caprolactone)-block-poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-block-poly(poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate) (PCL-b-PGMA-b-P(PEGMA)) with fluorescence units. Various experiments like structural characterization, fluorescence properties, cell viability studies, encapsulation studies, measuring cytotoxicity against fibroblasts and bladder cancer cells are performed on these polymeric micelles. All of these results demonstrate that these self-assembled micelles may be promising carriers for intravesical delivery of DOX for bladder cancer therapy.