A biomimicking and electrostatic self-assembly strategy for the preparation of glycopolymer decorated photoactive nanoparticles

Novel and well-controlled copolymers, PDMA-co-PDMAEMA with bio-inspired dopamine-containing segments and electropositive PDMAEMA segments, PMAG-b-PMAA consisting of bio-targeted glucose-containing segments and electronegative PMAA segments, and a carboxyl-ending PMAG homopolymer, were synthesized and investigated by a combination of NMR, GPC, DLS and zeta potential measurements. After self-assembling the dopamine-containing polymer with Zn phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and decorating it with the sugar polymer PMAG-b-PMAA, the final nanoparticles presented better serum-stability and singlet oxygen quantum yields. More importantly, the in vitro and in vivo PDT experiments indicated that the pre-designed photoactive nanoparticles can well inhibit the growth of tumor cells.