Development of Disulfide Core-Crosslinked Pluronic Nanoparticles as an Effective Anticancer-Drug-Delivery System

Thiolated Pluronic (Plu-SH) nanopartides are developed as potential articulate, target-specific anticancer-drug carriers for intracellular drug release triggered by the difference in redox potential in tumor cells. The cores of the micelles are formed by the disulfide bonds of the functionalized Pluronic F127, when dissolved in an aqueous solution. The nanoparticles are 95.6 +/- 18.6 nm in size, and 235.6 +/- 63.7 nm after encapsulation of the hydrophobic drug molecules. The drug-loaded micelles show effective stability in blood-plasma conditions and the kinetics of micelle stability and drug release are shown. Paclitaxel-loaded micelles display approximately 39% cell viability in A549 cells.