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An important requirement to decrease the side effects of chemotherapy drugs is to develop nanocarriers with precise biological functions. In this work, a set of glyconanoparticles was prepared via selfassembly of amphiphilic glycoblock copolymers for the targeted delivery of a hydrophobic chemotherapy drug. Well-defined glycoblock copolymers that consist of 1,1-di-tert-butyl 3-(2-(metyloyloxy)ethyl)-butane-1,1,3tricarboxylate (MAETC) together with three different protected-sugar moieties (β-D-glucopyranoside, β-D-mannopyranoside, and β-L-fucopyranoside) were synthesized by using reversible addition−fragmentation chaintransfer polymerization. Copolymers were deprotected and conjugated with the cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) (cis-Pt) anticancer drug. Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy measurements revealed that cis-Pt-conjugated glyconanoparticles were sufficiently stable under physiological conditions and had diameters of approximately 100 nm with considerably narrow size distributions. They were intracellularly taken up by the breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), prostate cancer (PC3), renal cancer (769-P), and Chinese hamster ovary cell lines. The PC3 and 769-P cell lines showed a high preference for the glycosylated nanoparticles. Glycoblock copolymers were found nontoxic but showed high cytotoxicity and increased efficacy after conjugation with the cis-Pt anticancer drug. Moreover, in vitro cytotoxicity assays in cancer cell lines demonstrate that cis-Pt-loaded glycopolymer-based nanoparticles have higher cytotoxicity than free cis-Pt. Overall, our results suggest that glyconanoparticles have a great potential to be used as an effective cis-Pt drug carrier for targeted cancer therapy.

Carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) have attracted great attention in biomedical applications such as cancer imaging and therapy.

Combination cancer therapy based on multifunctional nanomaterials has attracted great attention. The present work focuses on the preparation of the glycopolymeric nanoparticle, which contains a photosensitizer (zinc(II)phthalocyanine, ZnPc) and an anticancer drug (Doxorubicin, Dox). First, a novel mono azide-functional ZnPc-N 3 with seven hydrophilic ethylene oxide chains was synthesized. Next, ZnPc alone or together with Dox bearing glycopolymers was synthesized via the RAFT polymerization method and then self-assembled into glyconanoparticles (GNPs) with narrow particle size distribution. Then the evaluation of the biological activity of GNPs (GNPs-ZnPc and GNPs-ZnPc/Dox) for dual photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy against human breast cancer cells was investigated. The constructed GNPs were identified via general characterization methods, including dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The prepared GNPs-ZnPc/Dox demonstrated remarkable photophysical and photochemical properties, involving good colloidal stability in biological conditions, pH-responsive drug release, and the capacity to generate singlet oxygen under light irradiation. The outer layer of nanoparticles covered by fructose sugar moieties achieves a targeted cancer therapy owing to GLUT5 (a well-known fructose transporter) overexpression toward breast cancer cells. In vitro experiments were then performed to evaluate the chemo/phototoxicity, cellular uptake, and anticancer efficacy of GNPs-ZnPc/Dox. In comparison with free Dox, human breast cancer cells treated with GNPs-ZnPc/Dox exhibited a higher cellular internalization via GLUT5 targeting. In particular, the GNPs-ZnPc/Dox nanoplatform revealed an excellent synergistic anticancer activity in comparison with free ZnPc-N 3 and free Dox, representing a novel and promising chemophotodynamic combination therapeutic methodology to improve therapeutic efficacy.

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