Polymerizable disulfide paclitaxel prodrug for controlled drug delivery

• A novel controlled drug delivery system based on disulfide switcher.
• A polymerizable disulfide paclitaxel (PTX) prodrug was synthesized.
• The copolymer prodrug showed more apparent cytotoxicity to cancer cells.

A polymerizable disulfide paclitaxel (PTX) prodrug was synthesized by the consequential esterification reactions of 3,3′-dithiodipropionic acid (DTPA), a disulfide compound containing two active carboxyl groups, with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and PTX. The structure of the prodrug was confirmed by 1H NMR characterization. Then, the polymerizable prodrug was copolymerized with poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMEA) to obtain a copolymer with hydrophilic PEG side chains and PTX covalently linked onto the backbone via disulfide bonds. The loading content of PTX was 23%. In aqueous solution, this copolymer prodrug could self-assemble into micelles, with hydrophobic PTX as the cores and hydrophilic PEG-segment as the shells. In vitro cell assay demonstrated that this copolymer prodrug showed more apparent cytotoxicity to cancer cells than to human normal cells. After incubation for 48 h, the cell viability of HEK-293 cells (human embryo kidney cells) at 0.1 μg/mL PTX still remained more than 90%, however, that of HeLa cells (human cervical cancer cells) decreased to 52%.