Synthesis of novel Temperature- and pH-Sensitive ABA triblock copolymers P(DEAEMA-co-MEO2MA-co-OEGMA)-b-PEG-b-P(DEAEMA-co-MEO2MA-co-OEGMA): micellization, sol-gel transitions, and sustained BSA release
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Novel temperature- and pH-responsive ABA-type triblock copolymers, P(DEAEMA-co-MEO2MA-co-OEGMA)-b-PEG-b-P(DEAEMA-co-MEO2MA-co-OEGMA), composed of a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) middle block and temperature- and pH-sensitive outer blocks, were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The composition and structure of the copolymer were characterized by 1H NMR and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The temperature- and pH-sensitivity, micellization, and the sol–gel transitions of the triblock copolymers in aqueous solutions were studied using transmittance measurements, surface tension, viscosity, fluorescence probe technique, dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta-potential measurements, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the triblock copolymer, which contains a small amount of a weak base group, (N,N-diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA), can be tuned precisely and reversibly by changing the solution pH. When the copolymer concentration was sufficiently high, increasing temperature resulted in the free-flowing solution transformation into a micellar gel. The sol-to-gel transition temperature (Tsol–gel) in aqueous solution will continue to decrease as solution concentration increases.
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Albumin combined with chitosan to form microspheres loaded with anesthetics like tetracaine and atropine significantly prolonged the duration and peak effect of the drugs.
“Albumin has also been combined with chitosan to form microspheres loaded with anesthetics like tetracaine and atropine, which significantly prolonged the duration and peak effect of the drugs [67,97].”
From From design to Deployment: The innovative role of nanomicelles in targeted ophthalmic therapeutics (2025) · cites this paper as [97]
The Materials and Methods (section 2.10) and Results and Discussion (section 3.9) describe bovine serum albumin released from a copolymer micellar gel. Searches for chitosan, tetracaine, atropine, microspheres, and prolonged anesthetic effects found no passage addressing the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Han, Y., Liu, S., Mao, H., Tian, L., & Ning, W.
- Affiliations
- Shaanxi Normal University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Shouxin
- Venue
- Polymers
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2016-11-11
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 367
- ISSN
- 2073-4360 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6431942
- OpenAlex
- W2549125599
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 0.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Polymers (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- the Nation Science Foundation of China (20973106)
- the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT_14R33)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Surfactants and Colloidal Systems
- Keywords
- ABA triblock copolymers, thermoresponsive polymers, pH-responsive polymers, poly(ethylene glycol) block copolymers, micellization, sol-gel transition, lower critical solution temperature, protein delivery, atom transfer radical polymerization
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