Chemotherapeutic agents for treating cancers show considerable side effects, toxicity, and drug resistance. To mitigate the problems, we designed nucleus-targeted, echogenic, stimuli-responsive polymeric vesicles (polymersomes) to transport and subsequently release the encapsulated anticancer drugs within the nuclei of pancreatic cancer cells. We synthesized an alkyne-dexamethasone derivative and conjugated it to N3-polyethylene glycol (PEG)-polylactic acid (PLA) copolymer employing the Cu2+ catalyzed "Click" reaction. We prepared polymersomes from the dexamethasone-PEG-PLA conjugate along with a synthesized stimuli-responsive polymer PEG-S-S-PLA. The dexamethasone group dilates the nuclear pore complexes and transports the vesicles to the nuclei. We designed the polymersomes to release the encapsulated drugs in the presence of a high concentration of reducing agents in the nuclei of pancreatic cancer cells. We observed that the nucleus-targeted, stimuli-responsive polymersomes released 70% of encapsulated contents in the nucleus-mimicking environment in 80 min. We encapsulated the cancer stemness inhibitor BBI608 in the vesicles and observed that the BBI608 encapsulated polymersomes reduced the viability of the BxPC3 cells to 43% in three-dimensional spheroid cultures. The polymersomes were prepared following a special protocol so that they scatter ultrasound, allowing imaging by a medical ultrasound scanner. Therefore, these echogenic, targeted, stimuli-responsive, and drug-encapsulated polymersomes have the potential for trackable, targeted carrier of chemotherapeutic drugs to cancer cell nuclei.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
3
6%
Medicine and Dentistry
2
4%
Other
4
8%
Unknown
26
54%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 February 2026.
All research outputs
#6,543,422
of 34,115,020 outputs
Outputs from Biomacromolecules
#1,475
of 6,222 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#89,756
of 375,937 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Biomacromolecules
#9
of 57 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,115,020 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 80th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 6,222 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 375,937 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 57 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
