Photo-Responsive Supramolecular Micelles for Controlled Drug Release and Improved Chemotherapy

Development of stimuli-responsive supramolecular micelles that enable high levels of well-controlled drug release in cancer cells remains a grand challenge. Here, we encapsulated the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) and pro-photosensitizer 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) within adenine-functionalized supramolecular micelles (A-PPG), in order to achieve effective drug delivery combined with photo-chemotherapy. The resulting DOX/5-ALA-loaded micelles exhibited excellent light and pH-responsive behavior in aqueous solution and high drug-entrapment stability in serum-rich media. A short duration (1–2 min) of laser irradiation with visible light induced the dissociation of the DOX/5-ALA complexes within the micelles, which disrupted micellular stability and resulted in rapid, immediate release of the physically entrapped drug from the micelles. In addition, in vitro assays of cellular reactive oxygen species generation and cellular internalization confirmed the drug-loaded micelles exhibited significantly enhanced cellular uptake after visible light irradiation, and that the light-triggered disassembly of micellar structures rapidly increased the production of reactive oxygen species within the cells. Importantly, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that laser irradiation of cancer cells incubated with DOX/5-ALA-loaded A-PPG micelles effectively induced apoptotic cell death via endocytosis. Thus, this newly developed supramolecular system may offer a potential route towards improving the efficacy of synergistic chemotherapeutic approaches for cancer.