Drug loading strategy of modular self-assembly mode: Curcumin pyrimidine derivatives mediated by pH-sensitive materials

Chemotherapy drugs often cause various adverse reactions and affect normal tissues, so it is of great significance to design effective targeted anti-tumor drug delivery methods. We constructed a series of self-assembled supramolecular modular structures and explored whether they could become an effective targeted antitumor fluorescent agent. UV and fluorescence spectra show that it has fluorescence. The drug release curve was determined by dialysis method and the results showed that the release rate of PCB series composites was the highest under pH = 5. The curcumin pyrimidine derivative was embedded in the structure, and the formation of the complex was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. The results for the cell imaging indicated that with the decrease of environmental pH value, the ability of PCB-1 and PCB-2 to penetrate the biofilm barrier into cells increased, suggesting that they have targeting action. The results of the cell viability test showed that PCB-1 and PCB-2 had a good inhibitory effect on MGC and HeLa cells. TEM showed that PCB-1 was a regular hexahedron structure and PCB-2 was a rod structure. In addition, the encapsulation efficiency of PCB-1 and PCB-2 was tested to be 86.50% and 88.57%, respectively, with drug loading rates of 27.62% and 28.38%, and Zeta potential values of +35 and +32. In conclusion, PCB-1 and PCB-2 are good potential anti-tumor fluorescent agents.