β-Cyclodextrin-modified hyaluronic acid-based supramolecular self-assemblies for pH- and esterase- dual-responsive drug delivery

Although some drug-based supramolecular systems have been constructed to overcome multidrug resistance and enhance the bioavailability of chemical drugs, strengthening the specific stimuli-responsive and active targeting ability of these systems is still a major challenge. In this paper, the synthesis and self-assembly behaviour of supramolecular self-assemblies with active targeting β-cyclodextrin-modified hyaluronic acid (HA-CD) and drug-drug conjugates (curcumin-oxoplatin, Cur-Pt) as building moieties were carefully investigated. Notably, the curcumin was chosen not only as the chemical anti-cancer drug, but also acted as the guest molecule which could be included into CD cavity to form host-guest interaction-based supramolecular assemblies. The obtained self-assemblies exhibited pH- and esterase-responsive drug release behaviours. Furthermore, basic cell experiments were performed to prove their effective cellular toxicity based on A549 cells and PC3 cells with high expression of CD44 receptor but they showed no toxicity to normal LO-2 cells with low expression of CD44 receptor, which suggests their potential application in the targeted drug release field.