Abstract
Cancer is one of the most fatal diseases which imposes a serious threat to human health worldwide. Combination therapy of gene drugs with chemotherapeutic drugs is a strategy to improve anticancer effect. In this study, a triblock copolymer was synthesized to enable the codelivery of siRNA and DOX for combination therapy. With a pH-sensitive core, a cationic intermediate layer, and a stable PEG shell, the system can not only load nucleic acid drugs and chemotherapeutic drugs, but also achieve the effect of pH-sensitive drug release. In vitro experiments indicated that the size of micelles could be changed at different pH values, and DOX could be released rapidly at low pH values, which is good for killing cancer cells. And in vivo experiments proved that polymer vector loaded with siRNA and DOX can be enriched in tumor tissues, and release their loads rapidly when they get into tumor. Consequently, the polymeric micelles have a great potential to co-deliver chemotherapeutic drugs and gene drugs to cancer tissues for combination therapy.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81600775 and 21504082, U1904176, U1704175), Medical Science and Technology Program of Henan Province (2018020398, SB201902026).
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Li, Z., Feng, H., **, L. et al. Polymeric micelle with pH-induced variable size and doxorubicin and siRNA co-delivery for synergistic cancer therapy. Appl Nanosci 10, 1903–1913 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01263-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01263-8