Reverse poly(ε-caprolactone)-g-dextran graft copolymers. Nano-carriers for intracellular uptake of anticancer drugs.

A new fully biodegradable "reverse" oligosaccharide-based amphiphilic graft copolymer structure with a hydrophobic backbone and hydrophilic side chains, poly(ε-caprolactone)-g-dextran (PCL-g-Dex) was synthetized. For this purpose, "clickable" propargylated PCL (PCL-yne) and azido-dextran (Dex-N3) were prepared to further synthesize PCL-g-Dex copolymer by a Huisgen's cycloaddition. This "reverse" copolymer architecture self-assembled in biodegradable nano-carriers, in the shape of dynamic polymeric micelles, and were loaded with doxorubicin (Dox) anti-cancer drug.