Development of CO2-responsive supramolecular drug carrier system for potential application in anticancer treatment

CO2-Responsive Water-Soluble Conjugated Polymers as a Multifunctional Fluorescent Probe for Bioimaging Applications

“…Sheep red blood cell (SRBCs) were employed to assess the hemolytic activity of pristine, CO 2 -treated, and N 2 -treated I-PT, as previously described. , …”

“…Sheep red blood cell (SRBCs) were employed to assess the hemolytic activity of pristine, CO 2 -treated, and N 2 -treated I-PT, as previously described. 33,34 Cell Culture. NIH/3T3 and MG63 cell lines were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS, 100 units/mL penicillin, and 100 μg/mL of streptomycin.…”

“…I-R6G exhibits reversible, stable, and controllable physical properties in aqueous environments upon CO 2 and nitrogen (N 2 ) bubbling and could thus significantly improve the selectivity, efficacy, and safety of chemotherapy drugs in cancer cells . In addition, a drug carrier system composed of I-R6G and multiple hydrogen-bonded supramolecular nanocarriers not only accelerated selective internalization into cancer cells in a CO 2 -rich microenvironment but also induced massive apoptotic cell death at a minimum effective dose, thus resulting in safer, more effective cancer treatment. , The findings described above demonstrate that CO 2 can efficiently improve the amphiphilic properties and self-assembly behavior of CO 2 -responsive materials to extend their applications to various fields. Therefore, we reasonably conjectured that introducing CO 2 -sensitive imidazole molecules into water-soluble polythiophene may provide a platform to produce multifunctional fluorescent materials with improved structural stability in an aqueous environment, high biocompatibility toward normal and cancer cell lines, and desirable intracellular fluorescence properties and thereby potentially improve their efficacy and safety in biomedical applications.…”