Polymer (Korea), cilt.49, sa.3, ss.277-284, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
Poly(azomethine) based micelles have been developed for the delivery of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE). These micelles, synthesized from a polyazomethine-PEG block copolymer, demonstrate significant potential in drug release systems due to its pH-sensitive biodegradable nature. Characterization through SEM revealed spherical micelles with an average diameter of 135.5 nm. The micelles' drug release behavior was studied at physiological (pH 7.2) and lyso-somal (pH 5.0) pH levels. The findings indicated pH sensitive release of CAPE from the micelle of which only 2.14% of CAPE was released at pH 7.2 while 38.8% of CAPE was released at pH 5.0 after 24 h. In vitro cell viability assays using human-derived fibroblast cells showed that CAPE-loaded micelles exhibited minimal toxicity after 48 hours compared to CAPE and free micelle. These results suggest the potential of polyazomethine-based micelles as efficient carriers for targeted drug delivery for therapeutic purposes.