Design of GSH-triggered disintegrable dendritic polyurethane as bioreducible unimolecular micelles for tumor-specific chemotherapeutic drug delivery

Abstract

Unimolecular micelles have attracted intensely attention as drug delivery systems (DDSs) in tumor chemotherapy owing to their superior stability. However, their drug release performance is mainly determined by the hydrophilic-hydrophobic property of their cores, in which the chemotherapeutic drugs were loaded. Here, GSH-triggered disintegrable dendritic polyurethane was designed via a facile one-pot approach, with disulfide-containing diisocyanate. After PEGylation, it self-assembled into bioreducible unimolecular micelles with highly hydrophobic cores for chemotherapeutics-loading, showing a minimized premature drug leakage during blood circulation. After tumor cellular internalization, the GSH-triggered disintegration of the dendritic polyurethane-based cores in the unimolecular micelles occurred to release the loaded model drug (DOX), possessing tumor-specific chemotherapy with an enhanced tumor growth inhibition than free DOX.