Supramolecular anticancer drug delivery systems based on linear–dendritic copolymers

Abstract

The combination of two generations of polymers as linear–dendritic copolymers leads to hybrid systems with unique properties, which are of great interest for many applications. Herein, recent advances in anticancer drug delivery systems based on linear–dendritic copolymers have been reviewed.

Encapsulation and cellular internalization of cyanine dye using amphiphilic dendronized polymers

“…Polymer 5c was synthesized by using C 12 dendrons to get the amphiphilic dendronized polymer 5b/5c. However, 1-dodecyne was also click coupled to get 100 % hydrophobic polymer 5a using copper (II) sulphate and sodium ascorbate.…”

“…In particular, emphasis has been given to the core-shell amphiphilic dendritic polymers as scaffolds in polymer therapeutics. This mainly included the synthesis of amphiphilic dendritic polymers with a hydrophobic core surrounded by a hydrophilic shell and their application in delivering hydrophobic compounds [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] and their applications in transferring water-soluble dyes [13,14,15], such as rose Bengal, Congo red, eosin Y, fluorescein, bromophenol blue, methyl red, and methyl orange, from an aqueous solution to n apolar solvent. Though both, dendrimers and hyperbranched dendrimers have been explored for dye encapsulation by a number of research groups [16,17,18,19,20], amphiphilic dendronized polymers still remain relatively unexplored.…”

Magnetic metal-complex-conducting copolymer core–shell nanoassemblies for a single-drug anticancer platform

“…Compared with traditional MNP-based methods that require additional co-loading processes of drug reagents, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] the Fe(salen)-based system is unprecedented in that a single agent provides both the magnetic properties and anticancer activity. In other words, the Fe(salen) metal complexes, which have been used in the last few decades as asymmetric catalysts [17][18][19][20] and molecular magnets, 21,22 can be employed as magnetically guided anticancer agents.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Recent advances in block copolymer-based self-assembly [7][8][9] have led to the development of various magnetic DDS vehicles [1][2][3][4][5][6] such as polymeric nanocarriers into which prodrugs are often co-encapsulated with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), and these nanocarriers serve to shield the drug and to enable its magnetically guided imaging and local release in response to an alternating magnetic field (AMF).…”

“…However, the synthesis of MNPs with desirable magnetic properties for magnetic DDS platforms requires numerous steps to control the particles' core, diameter, anisotropy, suspension composition and surface coating, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and requires considerable care to avoid adverse effects in vivo. For example, an excessive dose of MNPs can cause oxidative stress-induced cell injury, 10,11 and slow degradation can lead to accumulation in the liver and other organs, 5,12 resulting in potentially fatal effects such as cardiovascular damage, blood clots and hypersensitivity.…”