Enzyme-responsive vitamin D-based micelles for paclitaxel-controlled delivery and synergistic pancreatic cancer therapy.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most feared diseases worldwide owing to its poor prognosis, negligible therapeutic advances, and high mortality. Herein, multifunctional enzyme-responsive micelles for the controlled delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) were prepared to circumvent its current clinical challenges. Accordingly, two enzyme-responsive structural units composed of Vitamin D (VD) conjugated with polyethylene glycol of different molecular weights (600 Da and 2000 Da) were synthesized and characterized using different analytical methods.