A magnetic polypeptide nanocomposite with pH and near-infrared dual responsiveness for cancer therapy

作者：Zhang, Jie; Gong, Chu; Li, Bingqiang; Shan, Meng; Wu, Guolin^*

来源：Journal of Polymer Research, 2017, 24(8): 122.

DOI：10.1007/s10965-017-1277-5

• Magnetic nanoparticles
• Polypeptide nanocomposites
• pH responsive
• Near-infrared responsive
• Drug delivery

A magnetic polypeptide nanocomposite with pH and near-infrared (NIR) dual responsiveness was developed as a drug carrier for cancer therapy, which was prepared through the self-assembly of Fe3O4 superparamagnetic nanoparticles, poly(aspartic acid) derivative (mPEG-g-PDAEAIM) and doxorubicin (DOX) in water. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared to provide the superparamagnetic core of nanocomposites for tumor targeting via chemical co-precipitation. The protonable imidazole groups of mPEG-g-PDAEAIM with a pKa of similar to 7 were accountable for the pH-responsiveness of nanocomposites. The photothermal effect of nanocomposites under the irradiation of NIR laser was induced via the interactions between dopamine groups of mPEG-g-PDAEAIM and Fe3O4 superparamagnetic nanoparticles to trigger the drug release. NMR, FT-IR, TEM, hysteresis loop analysis and MRI were utilized to characterize the materials. The DOX loaded nanocomposites exhibited pH-responsive and NIR dependent on/off switchable release profiles. The nanocomposites without drug loading (Fe3O4@mPEG-g-PDAEAIM) showed excellent biocompatibility while DOX loaded nanocomposites caused MCF-7 cells' apoptosis due to the photothermal/chemotherapy combination effects. Overall, the pH and near-infrared dual responsive magnetic nanocomposite had a great potential for cancer therapy.

• 出版日期2017-7-17
• 单位南开大学