Facile preparation of pH/reduction dual-stimuli responsive dextran nanogel as environment-sensitive carrier of doxorubicin

Dual and multi-stimuli responsive polymeric nanoparticles that can respond to two or more signals have been demonstrated as prospective drug carriers with enhanced tumor accumulation and on-demand drug release profiles. In this study, dextran-based (Dex-SS) nanogels were developed via a facile method based on the disulfide containing Schiff base formation between polyaldehyde dextran and cystamine in water-in-oil inverse microemulsion. Acidic and reductive (GSH) environment sensitive degradation behaviors of the resulted nanogels were investigated by morphology analysis of the treated nanogels using SEM imaging. Doxorubicin (DOX) was covalently conjugated into the dextran nanogels via Schiff base linkages, and pH/GSH dual sensitive drug release profiles were demonstrated. Effective cell uptake of the DOX-loaded nanogels was finally identified by human cancer cell line of H1299. Take advantage of the acidic and reductive tumor microenvironment, the dual-stimuli responsive Dex-SS nanogels can serve as microenvironment-sensitive drug delivery systems for tumor therapy.