Unimolecular Micelles of Amphiphilic Cyclodextrin-Core Star-Like Copolymers with Covalent pH-Responsive Linkage of Anticancer Prodrugs

Multifunctional stable and stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems are important for efficient cancer treatment due to their advantages such as enhanced cancer-targeting efficiency, improved pharmacokinetics, minimized drug leaching, and reduced undesirable side effects. Here we report a robust and pH-responsive anticancer drug delivery system based on unimolecular micelles of star-like amphiphilic copolymers. The polymers (denoted as <b>CPOFs</b>) were facilely synthesized via one-step atom transfer radical polymerization of functionalizable benzoaldehyde and hydrophilic poly­[(oligo ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate] as comonomers from the core of heptakis [2,3,6-tri-<i>o</i>-(2-bromo-2-methyl propionyl]-β-cyclodextrin as the initiator. Doxorubicin (DOX) as an anticancer drug was covalently linked to the benzoaldehyde groups of <b>CPOFs</b> through pH-sensitive Schiff-base bonds. The DOX-conjugated polymers, denoted as <b>CPOF–DOX</b>, formed robust unimolecular micelles with an average diameter of 18 nm in aqueous media. More importantly, these unimolecular micelles showed higher drug loading capacity and more controllable drug release characteristics, compared to our previous unimolecular micelles of β-cyclodextrin-poly­(lactic acid)-<i>b</i>-poly­[(oligo ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylates] that physically encapsulated DOX via hydrophobic interaction. Moreover, the <b>CPOF–DOX</b> unimolecular micelles could be internalized by human cervical cancer HeLa cells in a stepwise way and showed less cytotoxicity compared to carrier-free DOX. We foresee that <b>CPOF–DOX</b> would provide a promising robust and controllable anticancer drug delivery system for future animal study and clinical trials for cancer treatment