{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,31]],"date-time":"2026-01-31T17:53:20Z","timestamp":1769882000066,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,24]],"date-time":"2023-06-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1687564800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Regional Development Fund within the Operational Programme \u201cScience and Education for Smart Growth 2014\u20132020\u201d","award":["BG05M2OP001-1.001-0008-C01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BG05M2OP001-1.001-0008-C01"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Polymer micelles represent one of the most attractive drug delivery systems due to their design flexibility based on a variety of macromolecular synthetic methods. The environmentally safe chemistry in which the use or generation of hazardous materials is minimized has an increasing impact on polymer-based drug delivery nanosystems. In this work, a solvent-free green synthetic procedure was applied for the preparation of an amphiphilic diblock copolymer consisting of biodegradable hydrophobic poly(acetylene-functional carbonate) and biocompatible hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) blocks. The cyclic functional carbonate monomer 5-methyl-5-propargyloxycarbonyl-1,3-dioxane-2-one (MPC) was polymerized in bulk using methoxy PEG-5K as a macroinitiator by applying the metal-free organocatalyzed controlled ring-opening polymerization at a relatively low temperature of 60 \u00b0C. The functional amphiphilic block copolymer self-associated in aqueous media into stable micelles with an average diameter of 44 nm. The copolymer micelles were physico-chemically characterized and loaded with the plant-derived anticancer drug curcumin. Preliminary in vitro evaluations indicate that the functional copolymer micelles are non-toxic and promising candidates for further investigation as nanocarriers for biomedical applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms241310588","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,26]],"date-time":"2023-06-26T02:05:02Z","timestamp":1687745102000},"page":"10588","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Green Synthesis and the Evaluation of a Functional Amphiphilic Block Copolymer as a Micellar Curcumin Delivery System"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8849-8787","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Radostina","family":"Kalinova","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Akad. G. Bonchev St., bl. 103-A, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Georgy","family":"Grancharov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Akad. G. Bonchev St., bl. 103-A, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jordan","family":"Doumanov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d, 8 Dragan Tzankov Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kirilka","family":"Mladenova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d, 8 Dragan Tzankov Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Svetla","family":"Petrova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d, 8 Dragan Tzankov Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1024-9198","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivaylo","family":"Dimitrov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Akad. G. Bonchev St., bl. 103-A, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1039\/B918763B","article-title":"Green Chemistry: Principles and practice","volume":"39","author":"Anastas","year":"2010","journal-title":"Chem. Soc. Rev."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Osv\u00e1th, Z., Sz\u0151ke, A., P\u00e1sztor, S., Szarka, G., Z\u00e1voczki, L.B., and Iv\u00e1n, B. (2020). Post-polymerization heat effect in the production of polyamide 6 by bulk quasiliving anionic ring-opening polymerization of \u03b5-caprolactam with industrial components: A green processing technique. 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