Figure 5.

(a) Structure of a micellar charge-conversion nanocarrier (top) and a charge-conversion nanogel (bottom). (b) Formation and dissociation of a charge-conversion micelle encapsulating and releasing a positively-charged protein in dependence on the polymer charge. (c) Schematic illustration of the performance of the drug-loaded pH-responsive charge-conversion PAMA–DMMA nanogel. In the acidic tumor extracellular environment, the PAMA-DMMA nanogel is activated to be positively charged and is, thus, readily internalized by tumor cells with subsequent intracellular drug release. Reprinted from [44,45], with permission from John Wiley and Sons and American Chemical Society, respectively. Copyright (2010) WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim and (2007) American Chemical Society.