Meishan Chen: Chemical Engineering Institute, Changchun University of Technology, 2055 Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, China. mschen@ciac.ac.cn.
Xiangru Feng: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. xrfeng@ciac.ac.cn.
Weiguo Xu: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. wgxu@caic.ac.cn.
Yanqiao Wang: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. candyqiao77@jlu.edu.cn.
Yanan Yang: Chemical Engineering Institute, Changchun University of Technology, 2055 Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, China. yangyanan@ccut.edu.cn.
Zhongyu Jiang: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. zyjiang@ciac.ac.cn.
Jianxun Ding: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. jxding@ciac.ac.cn.
In recent years, polyureas with dynamic hindered urea bonds (HUBs), a class of promising biomedical polymers, have attracted wide attention as a result of their controlled hydrolytic properties. The effect of the chemical structures on the properties of polyureas and their assemblies has rarely been reported. In this study, four kinds of polyureas with different chemical groups have been synthesized, and the polyureas from cyclohexyl diisocyanate and tert-butyl diamine showed the fastest hydrolytic rate. The amphiphilic polyurea composed of hydrophobic cyclohexyl-tert-butyl polyurea and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was synthesized for the controlled delivery of the antitumor drug paclitaxel (PTX). The PTX-loaded PEGylated polyurea micelle more effectively entered into the murine breast cancer 4T1 cells and inhibited the corresponding tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the PEGylated polyurea with adjustable degradation might be a promising polymer matrix for drug delivery.
