The poor water-solubility of curcumin limits the broad applications of this promising traditional herb. In this study, we developed a strategy to prepare curcumin–polymer conjugates with a dynamic covalent linkage. A phenylboronic acid (PBA)-containing monomer was synthesized via the Hantzsch reaction. This monomer was then copolymerized with a water-soluble monomer through radical polymerization to obtain a water-soluble copolymer. Curcumin was included in this copolymer via covalent linkage between the PBA group in the polymer and 1,3-diketone group in curcumin. The resulting curcumin–polymer conjugate formed stable nanoparticles at pH ∼ 7.4 that quickly decomposed at pH ∼ 5.5. Further, it was found that the curcumin–polymer conjugates could selectively kill different cancer cells, which illustrates the potential of this curcumin–polymer conjugate for cancer therapy. This report is the first to describe a synthetic strategy for curcumin–polymer conjugates involving a dynamic linkage between PBA and curcumin. Thus, the applicability of PBA-containing polymers has been expanded to deliver curcumin for therapeutic applications.

中文翻译：

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具有动态硼酸酯键的姜黄素-聚合物共轭物，可选择性杀死癌细胞

姜黄素的水溶性差，限制了这种有前途的传统草药的广泛应用。在这项研究中，我们制定了一种制备具有动态共价键的姜黄素-聚合物共轭物的策略。通过Hantzsch反应合成了含苯硼酸（PBA）的单体。然后通过自由基聚合将该单体与水溶性单体共聚以获得水溶性共聚物。姜黄素通过以下方式包含在该共聚物中聚合物中的PBA基与姜黄素中的1,3-二酮基之间存在共价键。所得的姜黄素-聚合物共轭物在pH约7.4时形成稳定的纳米颗粒，在pH约5.5时迅速分解。此外，还发现姜黄素-聚合物结合物可以选择性杀死不同的癌细胞，这说明了姜黄素-聚合物结合物在癌症治疗中的潜力。该报告是第一个描述姜黄素-聚合物共轭物的合成策略的方法，该策略涉及PBA和姜黄素之间的动态联系。因此，含PBA的聚合物的适用性已经扩大以递送姜黄素用于治疗应用。