Bioreducible Amphiphilic Hyperbranched Polymer-Drug Conjugate for Intracellular Drug Delivery.

This paper reports synthesis of a bioreducible hyperbranched (HB) polymer by A 2 +B 3 approach from commercially available dithiothreitol (DTT) (A 2 ) and an easily accessible trifunctional monomer (B 3 ) containing three reactive pyridyl-disulfide groups. Highly efficient thiol-activated disulfide exchange reaction leads to the formation of the HB polymer ( M w = 21000; Đ = 2.3) with bioreducible disulfide linkages in the backbone and two different functional groups, namely, hydroxyl and pyridyl-disulfide in the core and periphery, respectively, of the HB-polymer. Postpolymerization functionalization of the hydroxyl-groups with camptothecin (CPT), a topoisomerase inhibitor and known anticancer drug, followed by replacing the terminal pyridyl-disulfide groups with oligo-oxyethylene-thiol resulted in easy access to an amphiphilic HB polydisulfide-CPT conjugate ( P1 ) with a very high drug loading content of ∼40%. P1 aggregated in water (above ∼10 μg/mL) producing drug-loaded nanoparticles ( D h ∼ 135 nm), which showed highly efficient glutathione (GSH)-triggered release of the active CPT. Mass spectrometry analysis of the GSH-treated P1 showed the presence of the active CPT drug as well as a cyclic monothiocarbonate product, which underpins the cascade-degradation mechanism involving GSH-triggered cleavage of the labile disulfide linkage, followed by intramolecular nucleophilic attack by the in situ generated thiol to the neighboring carbonate linkage, resulting in release of the active CPT drug. The P1 nanoparticle showed excellent cellular uptake as tested by confocal fluorescence microscopy in HeLa cells by predominantly endocytosis mechanism, resulting in highly efficient cell killing (IC 50 ∼ 0.6 μg/mL) as evident from the results of the MTT assay, as well as the apoptosis assay. Comparative studies with an analogous linear polymer-CPT conjugate showed much superior intracellular drug delivery potency of the hyperbranched polymer.