Ditelluride-Bridged PEG-PCL Copolymer as Folic Acid-Targeted and Redox-Responsive Nanoparticles for Enhanced Cancer Therapy

The development of the nanosized delivery systems with targeting navigation and efficient cargo release for cancer therapy has attracted great attention in recent years. Herein, a folic acid (FA) modified PEGylated polycaprolactone containing ditelluride linkage was synthesized through a facile coupling reaction. The hydrophobic doxorubicin (DOX) can be encapsulated into the polymeric micelles, and such nanoparticles (F-TeNP(DOX)) exhibited redox-responsive drug release under abundant glutathione (GSH) condition due to the degradation of ditelluride bonds. In addition, flow cytometric analyses showed that the FA ligands on F-TeNP(DOX) could facilitate their cellular uptake in 4T1 breast cancer cells. Therefore, F-TeNP(DOX) led to the promoted drug accumulation and enhanced growth inhibition on 4T1 tumor in vivo. The obtained results suggest F-TeNP(DOX) excellent potential as nanocarriers for anticancer drug delivery.