Gemcitabine-Vitamin E Prodrug-Loaded Micelles for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive cancer subtype presenting unmet clinical challenges. Conventional chemotherapy, which includes antimetabolite gemcitabine (GEM), is seriously undermined by a short half-life, its lack of targeting ability, and systemic toxicity. GEM incorporation in self-assembled nanosystems is still underexplored due to GEM's hydrophilicity which hinders efficient encapsulation. We hypothesized that vitamin E succinate-GEM prodrug (VES-GEM conjugate) combines hydrophobicity and multifunctionalities that can facilitate the development of Pluronic