Synthesis, Self-Assembly, and Drug-Loading Capacity of Well-Defined Cyclodextrin-Centered Drug-Conjugated Amphiphilic A14B7 Miktoarm Star Copolymers Based on Poly(ε-caprolactone) and Poly(ethylene glycol)

Novel drug-conjugated amphiphilic A14B7 miktoarm star copolymers composed of 14 poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) arms and 7 poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) arms with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as core moiety were synthesized by the combination of controlled ring-opening polymerization (CROP) and “click” chemistry. 1H NMR, FT-IR, and SEC-MALLS analyses confirmed the well-defined A14B7 miktoarm star architecture. These amphiphilic miktoarm star copolymers could self-assemble into multimorphological aggregates in aqueous solution, which were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Moreover, the drug-loading efficiency and drug-encapsulation efficiency of the drug-conjugated miktoarm star copolymers were higher than those of the corresponding non-drug-conjugated miktoarm star copolymers.