Thermo- and Light-Responsive Polymer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles as Potential Drug Carriers

Guihua Cui; Hao Wang; Shengsen Long; Tianshuo Zhang; Xiaoyu Guo; Shuiying Chen; Toyoji Kakuchi; Qian Duan; Donghai Zhao

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.931830

Thermo- and Light-Responsive Polymer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles as Potential Drug Carriers

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Jul 12:10:931830. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.931830. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Guihua Cui^{1

2}, Hao Wang¹, Shengsen Long¹, Tianshuo Zhang¹, Xiaoyu Guo³, Shuiying Chen², Toyoji Kakuchi⁴, Qian Duan², Donghai Zhao¹

Affiliations

¹ Science and Technology Division, Jilin Medical University, Jilin, China.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Jilin, China.
³ Jilin Vocational College of Industry and Technology, Jilin, China.
⁴ Division of Biotechnology and Macromolecular Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

Abstract

A series of thermo- and light-responsive copolymers of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and 6-[4-(4-methoxy phenyl azo)-phenoxyl-hexyl methacrylate) (AzoMA) (PNIPAM-b-PAzoMA) were synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization. The resulting copolymers had a narrow molecular weight distribution range of 1.06-1.24, in which M _n changed regularly with the monomer concentration. Subsequently, the diblock copolymers were successfully modified on the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles through the interaction between the chemical bonds to prepare Fe₃O₄@(PNIPAM-b-PAzoMA) nanoparticles. The size of fabricated nanoparticles with excellent thermo-sensitivity and photo-sensitivity was controlled at about 40-50 nm. Cell viability assays suggested that the nanoparticles showed no significant cytotoxicity and potential drug delivery in the tumor microenvironment.

Keywords: Poly(6-[4-(4-methoxy phenyl azo)-phenoxyl- hexyl methacrylate]) (PAzoMA); Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM); light-sensitive; magnetic nanoparticles; thermo-sensitive.