Ph-responsive nanometric polydiacetylenic micelles allow for efficient intracellular siRNA delivery, ACS applied materials & interfaces, 2016, 45, 30665-30670.

A novel generation of pH-responsive photo- polymerized diacetylenic amphiphile (PDA) micelles with a diameter of 10 nm was designed and optimized for the intracellular delivery of siRNAs. Dialysis and photopolymeriza- tion of the micelles allowed a strong reduction of the cytotoxicity of the nanovector, while the hydrophilic histidine headgroup permitted enhancing the siRNA delivery potential by improving the endosomal escape via imidazole protonation. These PDA-micellar systems were fully characterized by DLS, TEM, and DOSY-NMR experiments. The resulting bioactive complexes of PDA-micelles with siRNA were shown to have an optimal size below 100 nm.