Abstract:
Ferrocene is a redox moiety that can be positively charged upon being oxidized. Thus, it is possible to use this moiety to make a polymer platform that is redox responsive regarding their water solubility. Here we prepared polymerized EGCG nanoparticles (pEGCG) and polymerized EGCG gum (pEGCG-gum) from tea polyphenol EGCG. Ferrocene was grafted onto the polymerized tea polyphenol and the obtained polymers were allowed to self-assemble into water-insoluble and indispersible sub-micron particles. The water-insoluble ferrocene-bearing particles became water-dispersible particles with nanometer sizes upon being oxidized by hydrogen peroxide. The oxidized particles, Fc-pEG-gum can inhibit growth of HepG2 liver cancer cells about 30 percentage at 100 µg/mL.
