Doxorubicin Delivery by Copolymeric Nanoparticle for Treatment of Breast Cancer

Abstract

Amphiphilic polymeric nanoparticles have been attracted much attention in various pharmaceutical, biological and medical fields because they can use as carriers for anticancer drugs with sustained release, prolong the circulation time, prevent multidrug resistance and uptake by reticuloendothelial system. Here, we report a triblock copolymer as Doxorubicin (DOX) delivery system for treatment of breast cancer cells. Triblock copolymers of monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and ε-caprolactone were prepared with varying lengths of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) compositions and a fixed length of mPEG segment. These amphiphilic linear copolymers based on PCL hydrophobic core and hydrophilic mPEG ending, which can self-assemble into nanoscopic micelles with their hydrophobic cores, encapsulated doxorubicin in an aqueous solution. The particle sizes of prepared micelles were around 73.5-123.2 nm. The DOX loading content and DOX loading efficiency were from 3.7-7.4% and 26.4-49.2%, respectively. DOX-released profile was pH-dependent and faster at pH 5.4 than pH 7.4. The safety evaluations showed that nanoparticle did not induce hemolysis and NO production. Additionally, the cytotoxicity of DOX-loaded micelles was found to be similar with free DOX in drug-resistant cells (MCF-7/adr). The greater amounts of DOX and faster uptake accumulated into the drug-resistant cells from DOX-loaded micelles suggest a potential application in cancer chemotherapy.