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Polymeric cylinders, a fascinating type of nanostructures with high surface area, internal volume and rigidity, have been exploited as novel drug delivery vehicles over the past decade. However, it's still an open challenge to afford cylindrical nanostructures using polymeric building blocks via traditional self‐assembly processes. Herein, we report a hierarchical self‐assembly strategy of preparing cylindrical aggregates (tubisomes) from an amphiphilic supramolecular bottlebrush polymer in which a cyclic peptide nanotube is employed as the noncovalent backbone. Additionally, an aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) effect was introduced into the tubisomes to endow them with excellent fluorescent properties. Intriguingly, by encapsulating with the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX), both the fluorescence of tubisome and DOX can be quenched due to the energy transfer relay (ETR) effect. The release of DOX can induce the interruption of the ETR effect and recover the silenced fluorescence, thereby permitting the in‐situ imaging of drug release. The AIE‐featured supramolecular tubisomes reported here provide an alternative approach for fabricating cylindrical polymeric nanostructures and holds great potential for imaging‐guided drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically, the morphologies of the self‐assembled nanostructures from block copolymers are limited to spherical micelles, wormlike micelles and vesicles. Now, a new generation of materials with unique shape and structures, cylindrical soft matter particles (tubisomes), are obtained from the hierarchical self‐assembly of cyclic peptide‐bridged amphiphilic diblock copolymers. The capacity of obtained photo‐responsive tubisomes as potential drug carriers is evaluated. The supramolecular tubisomes pave an alternative way for fabricating polymeric tubular structures, and will expand the toolbox for the rational design of functional hierarchical nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of catalytic metallodrugs is an emerging field that may offer new approaches to cancer chemotherapeutic design. By exploiting the unique properties of transition metal complexes, in‐cell catalysis can be applied to modulate the cellular redox balance as part of a multi‐targeting mechanism of action. We describe the synthesis and characterization of six coordinatively unsaturated iridium(III) diamine catalysts that are stable at physiological pH in aqueous solution. Reduction of the colorimetric substrate 2,6‐dichlorophenolindophenol by transfer hydrogenation under biologically compatible conditions achieved turnover frequencies up to 63 ± 2 h−1 and demonstrated that the source of hydride (sodium formate) is the limiting reagent, despite being in a 1000‐fold excess of the catalyst. The catalyst showed low in vivo acute toxicity in zebrafish embryos and modest in vitro potency towards cancer cells. When administered alone, the catalyst generated oxidative stress in cells (an effect that was conserved in vivo), but co‐treatment with a nontoxic dose of sodium formate negated this effect. Co‐treatment with sodium formate significantly enhanced catalyst potency in cancer cells (A2780 ovarian and MCF7 breast cancer cells) and drug‐resistant cells (A2780cis and MCF7‐TAMR1) but not in non‐tumorigenic cells (MRC5), demonstrating that a redox‐targeting mechanism may generate selectivity for cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]