%0 journal article %@ 1381-5148 %A Lv, J., Zhang, L., Khan, M., Ren, X., Guo, J., Feng, Y. %D 2014 %J Reactive and Functional Polymers %P 89-97 %R doi:10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2014.06.005 %T Biodegradable depsipeptide–PDO–PEG-based block copolymer micelles as nanocarriers for controlled release of doxorubicin %U https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2014.06.005 %X Nowadays, biodegradable amphiphilic block copolymers with stable performance and adjustable structure have attracted the interests of researchers in the field of drug delivery. In this work, the triblock copolymer, P(SBMD-co-PDO)-b-PEG-b-P(SBMD-co-PDO), was successfully synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of 3(S)-sec-butyl-morpholine-2,5-dione (SBMD) and p-dioxanone (PDO) with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as the initiator. In phosphate buffered solution (PBS), these copolymers could self-assemble into nano-sized micelles that have a hydrophobic P(SBMD-co-PDO) core surrounded by a hydrophilic PEG shell. Because of the strong hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions, doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded into the micelles with high loading capacity (LC, up to 28.4%) and encapsulation efficiency (EE, up to 62.5%).