Simple Fabrication of Glutathione-Responsive PEGylated Micellar Nanocarriers for Dual Drugs Delivery

The authors report a feasible simple method to fabricate two kinds of micellar nanocarriers (MPEG-SS-CPT/DOX) with polyethylene glycol (PEG) based on the self-assembly of glutathione (GSH)-responsive amphiphilic PEGylated polymers (MPEG-SS-CPT) in free doxorubicin (DOX) solution, which could carry two anticancer drugs of camptothecin (CPT) and DOX toward cancer cells together. In in vitro release studies, the micelles of MPEG-SS-CPT/DOX could undergo the triggered disassembly to release CPT and DOX under GSH stimulus much faster than without GSH. Furthermore, the MPEG-SS-CPT nanocarriers could release CPT with no change of its original structure after degradation. From the experiments of loading and release of drugs, the cell viability assay, cellular uptake, and flow cytometry studies, it was found that the fibrous micelles modified by PEG with a molecular weight of 350 had greater potential in the field of drug delivery than the other with a molecular weight of 1900.