Abstract
Summary: Photocrosslinked nanogels with a hydrophobic core and hydrophilic shell are successfully fabricated with the goal of obtaining a biocompatible and biodegradable drug carrier for hydrophobic anticancer drugs. These nanogels are composed of amphiphilic triblock copolymers, poly(D,L‐lactic acid)/poly(ethylene glycol)/poly(D,L‐lactic acid) (PLA‐PEG‐PLA), with acrylated groups at the end of the PLA segments. The copolymers are synthesized by ring‐opening polymerization and possess a low CMC (49.6 mg · L^−1^), which easily helps to form micelles by self‐assembly. The acrylated end groups allow the micelles to be photocrosslinked by ultraviolet irradiation, which turn the micelles into nanogels. These nanogels exhibit excellent stability as a suspension in aqueous media at ambient temperature as compared to the micelles. Moreover, the size of the nanogels is easily manipulated in a range of 150 to 250 nm by changing the concentration of crosslinkers, e.g., ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and ultraviolet light irradiation time. The nanogels achieve a high encapsulation efficiency and offer a steady and long‐term release mechanism for the hydrophobic anticancer drug, CPT. It shows that these nanogels are useful for a hydrophobic anticancer drug‐carrier system.
Formation of the PLA‐PEG‐PLA nanogels.
magnified imageFormation of the PLA‐PEG‐PLA nanogels.