Facile fabrication of hypercrosslinked microporous polymer nanospheres for effective inhibition of triple negative breast cancer cells proliferation

[Display omitted] •Hypercrosslinked microporous organic polymer was fabricated via Friedal Crafts reaction.•The hypercrosslinked polymer nanospheres were post-modified with ssDNA to ensure the bio-compatibility.•The hypercrosslinked polymer material incorporates the strong blue fluoresecence and applied in bio-imaging.•The hypercrosslinked polymer nanospheres retained the high porosity and ensured high encapsulation of anticancer drug. Treatment failure is one of the main lethal causes of human triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients due to inefficient drug administration. The present study demonstrated the development of functional microporous organic polymers (MOPs) as a potential drug carrier and its controlled release. Due to the existence of abundant pores and high surface area, MOPs have promoted the high drug payloads, facilitating prolonged retention time and improved drug release. Herein, porous organic polymer has been fabricated via knitting strategy using the carbonyl bridged external crosslinker. Utilizing the imine chemistry, post-functionalization at the bridging carbon with the diamine resulted in the functional porous framework which had been further modified with single stranded DNA (ssDNA). Due to the conjugated structure, the designed material incorporates the strong blue fluorescence that assists in bio-imaging. In short, the inherent features of hypercrosslinked microporous polymers nanospheres (HMPNs) enabled the high encapsulation of Epirubicin (EPI) and its controlled release in TNBC cell lines (SUM-159 and MDA-MB-231) to inhibit cancer cells proliferation. We anticipate that the further development in functionalization of hypercrosslinked polymers may lead to a breakthrough in biomedical applications.