Intelligent polymeric nanoformulations sense and deliver at precise locations

Delivering active pharmaceutical agents to target sites continues to pose tremendous challenges. Much effort has been devoted to formulating endogenous stimuli-sensitive nanocarriers that could load sufficient cargo, stay intact during their passage to desired locations, and provide controlled release pathways. Through a clever design, using synthetic articulation of branched miktoarm star polymers, we have developed multi-tasking drug loaded soft nanoparticles, which can sense extra- and intracellular environments. These formulations provide an efficient therapeutic delivery platform via a novel partial micellar corona shedding mechanism, without undergoing morphological changes, in reactive oxygen species-rich surroundings outside the cell; and complete disassembly inside, a region with high glutathione concentrations. See their original publication which appeared on the journal cover of Feb 2021 issue of Macromol. Biosci. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/16165195/2021/21/2): Lotocki, V.; Yazdani, H.; Zhang, Q.; Gran, E.R.; Nyrko, A.; Maysinger, D.; Kakkar, A. “Miktoarm polymers with environment-selective ROS/GSH responsive locations: From modular synthesis to tuned drug release through micellar partial corona shedding and/or core disassembly”, Macromol. Biosci. 2021, 21(2), 2000305.