Herein, a new process to manufacture multicore micelles nanoparticles reinforced with co-assembly via hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic interaction under the help of ultrasonication was developed. The precise co-assembly between negative/hydrophobic drug and positive charged amphiphilic copolymer based pluronic platform allows the formation of complex micelles structures as the multicore motif with predefined functions. In this study, curcumin was selected as a drug model while positively charged copolymer was based on a pluronic-conjugated gelatin with different hydrophobicity length of Pluronic F87 and Pluronic F127. Under impact of dual hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions, the nCur-encapsulated core–shell micelles formed ranging from 40 nm to 70 nm and 40–100 nm by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), respectively. It is found that the structures emerged depended on the relative lengths of the hydrophobic blocks in pluronic. Regarding g2(τ) behavior from DLS measurement, the nanogels showed a high stability in spherical form. Surprisingly, the release profiles showed a sustainable behavior of Cur from this system for drug delivery approaches. In vitro study exhibited that nCur-encapsulated complex micelles increased inhibitory activity against cancer cells growth with IC₅₀ is 4.02 ± 0.11 mg/L (10.92 ± 0.3 µM) which is higher than of free curcumin at 9.40 ± 0.17 mg/L (25.54 ± 0.18 µM). The results obtained can provide the new method to generate the hierarchical assembly of copolymers with incorporated loading with the same property.

Nanogel-based systems loaded with single anticancer drugs display miscellaneous effectiveness in tumor remission, gradually circumventing mutation and resistance in chemotherapy. Hence, the existence of dual-drug delivered nano-sized systems has been contemporaneous with drug development and preceded the conventional-dose chemotherapy. Among outstanding synergistic drug nanoplatforms, thermosensitive copolymer heparin-Pluronic F127 (Hep-F127) co-delivering cisplatin (CDDP) and curcumins (Cur) (Hep-F127/CDDP/Cur) has emerged as a notable candidate for temperature-responsive drug delivery. The procedure was based on the entrapment of curcumin into the hydrophobic core of bio-degradable co-polymer Hep-F127 while the hydrophilic drug CDDP subsequently conjugated to the backbone heparin to form the core-shell structure. The copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometry, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), to corroborate the successful synthesis and via HPLC along with AES-ICP to evaluate the high drug loading along with a controllable release from the nano-gels. A well-defined nano-shell with size in the 129.3 ± 3.8 nm size range could enhance higher the efficacy of the conjugated-CDDP to Hep-F127 than that of single doses. Moreover, the considerable amount of dual-drug released from thermosensitive nanogels between different conditions (pH = 7.4 and pH = 5.5) in comparison to CDDP from Hep-F127 partially indicated the significantly anti-proliferative ability of Hep-F127/CDDP/Cur to the MCF-7 cell line. Remarkably, drug testing in a xenograft model elucidates the intricate synergism of co-delivery in suppressing tumor growth, which remedies some of the problems affecting in cancer chemotherapy.

Paclitaxel (PTX) and anastrozole (ANA) have been frequently applied in breast cancer treatment. PTX is well-known for its anti-proliferative effect meanwhile ANA has just been discovered to act as an estrogen receptor α (ERα) ligand. The combination therapy of PTX and ANA is expected to improve treating efficiency, as ANA would act as a ligand binding with the ERα gene expressed in breast cancer cells and thereafter PTX would inhibit the division and cause death to those cancer cells. In this study, liposome-based nanocarriers (LP) were developed for co-encapsulation of PTX and ANA to improve the efficacy of the combined drugs in an Estrogen receptor-responsive breast cancer study. PTX-ANA co-loaded LP was prepared using thin lipid film hydration method and was characterized for morphology, size, zeta potential, drug encapsulation and in vitro drug release. In addition, cell proliferation (WST assay) and IN Cell Analyzer were used for in vitro cytotoxicity studies on a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Results showed that the prepared LP and PTX-ANA-LP had spherical vesicles, with a mean particle size of 170.1 ± 13.5 nm and 189.0 ± 22.1 nm, respectively. Controlled and sustained releases were achieved at 72 h for both of the loaded drugs. The in vitro cytotoxicity study found that the combined drugs showed higher toxicity than each single drug separately. These results suggested a new approach to breast cancer treatment, consisting of the combination therapy of PTX and ANA in liposomes based on ER response.

In this work, the graphene quantum dots (GQDs) based fluorescent sensors for detection of clen-buterol (CLB) using the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) effect were developed and characterized. In the sensors, GQDs played as donor meanwhile the conjugated molecule formed from N-1-naphthylethylen diamine (NED) and diazonium-CLB was the acceptor. A good overlapping between the acceptor’s UV-vis spectrum and donor’s PL spectrum was observed. The CLB detection limit of the sensors was found at the CLB concentration of 10⁻¹⁰ g/ml. A wide linearity relationship between the PL intensities of the sensors and the CLB concentrations in the range from 10⁻⁴ g/ml to 10⁻¹⁰ g/ml was observed. This report contributes to the design of GQDs based fluorescent sensor for detection of growth promoters.