POxylated Polyurea Dendrimers: Smart Core-Shell Vectors with IC sub(50) Lowering Capacity

The design and preparation of highly efficient drug delivery platforms using green methodologies is at the forefront of nanotherapeutics research. POxylated polyurea dendrimers are efficiently synthesized using a supercritical-assisted polymerization in carbon dioxide. These fluorescent, pH-responsive and water-soluble core-shell smart nanocarriers show low toxicity in terms of cell viability and absence of glutathione depletion, two of the major side effect limitations of current vectors. The materials are also found to act as good transfection agents, through a mechanism involving an endosomal pathway, being able to reduce 100-fold the IC sub(50) of paclitaxel. Core-shell nanocarriers obtained by POxylation of polyurea dendrimers in supercritical CO sub(2) are able to reduce 100-fold the IC sub(50) dose of encapsulated placlitaxel. These water-soluble smart vectors are intrinsically fluorescent, pH responsive, and show lower toxicity when compared to pristine PURE-type dendrimers. POxylation using oligo-oxazolines is presented as a novel tool for next generation low cost and highly efficient nanotherapeutics.