Star shaped reactive polymeric nanocarriers

Abstract

Thermoresponsive drug delivery has gained much attention in recent years, due to solutions it offers to problems related to conventional drug delivery. Among polymeric architectures used in drug delivery, star shaped ones have some superior properties which make them a better choice as a drug delivery system when compared to their linear analogues. So, a star shaped reactive polymeric nanocarrier which releases its content in response to change in temperature can be an attractive candidate for drug delivery purposes. In this study, 4-arm and 6-arm star shaped reactive polymers which contain pendant furan groups at their side chains are synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). These furan groups are then functionalized by ethylmaleimide and a fluorescent dye BODIPY-maleimide as a model compound via Diels-Alder reaction. The thermoreversible nature of Diels-Alder reaction makes it a suitable choice for functionalization, since the release of the molecules is possible by retro Diels-Alder reaction of the endo product at physiological temperature.