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

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Abstract

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 ~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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (14JCYBJC18100), NSFC (51203079) and PCSIRT (IRT1257).

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  1. Jie Zhang and Chu Gong contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Zhang, Chu Gong, Bingqiang Li, Meng Shan & Guolin Wu

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  1. Jie Zhang
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  2. Chu Gong
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  3. Bingqiang Li
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  4. Meng Shan
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  5. Guolin Wu
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Correspondence to Guolin Wu.

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Zhang, J., Gong, C., Li, B. et al. A magnetic polypeptide nanocomposite with pH and near-infrared dual responsiveness for cancer therapy. J Polym Res 24, 122 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-017-1277-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-017-1277-5

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