Pluronic – Grafted Copolymers as Nanoplatforms for Effectively Delivering Hydrophobic Anticancer Drugs
Ngoc The Nguyen
Department of Pharmacy and Medicine, Tra Vinh University, Tra Vinh City, Vietnam
T. T. Thuy Nguyen
Department of Materials and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), HCMC 70000, Vietnam
Phuong Do
Department of Materials and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), HCMC 70000, Vietnam
T. T. Chau Nguyen
Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), HCMC70000, Vietnam
Van Toan Nguyen
Department of Chemistry and Food Technology, Ba Ria-Vung Tau University, Vung Tau City Vietnam
Dai Hai Nguyen
Department of Materials and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), HCMC 70000, Vietnam
Cuu Khoa Nguyen *
Department of Materials and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), HCMC 70000, Vietnam
Ngoc Quyen Tran
Department of Pharmacy and Medicine, Tra Vinh University, Tra Vinh City, Vietnam and Department of Materials and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), HCMC 70000, Vietnam
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Several kinds of anticancer drugs have significantly contributed in cancer therapy but these drugs exhibited several side-effect. There has recently been an emerging approach in drug development by which efficient exploitation of using nanocarriers. The drug delivery nanocarriers are considering as a sustainable and innovative development. In these studies, two kinds of pluronic-conjugated polymers were prepared in a green synthetic process via conjugate of thermosensitive copolymer pluronic F127 (F127) derivative onto amine-functionalized generation 4.0 polyamidoamine (PAMAM G4.0) dendrimer or heparin. The pluronic–functionalized polymers (G4.0-F127 and Hep-F127) were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), which revealed that size of these nanocarriers were below 180 nm in diameter. The G4.0-F127 nanocarriers exhibited a high entrapment-efficiency (EE) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), approximately 71.35±1.75% of fed drug, which was significantly higher than that of PAMAM G4.0 at 42.18±1.89% and F127 at 18.75±2.25%. For Hep-F127, the nanocarriers exhibited a high drug loading efficiency with 5-FU, Erlotinib hydrochloride (Erlo) and Cisplatin (Cis) at 37°C. Releasing studies indicated that the nanocarriers could be used for delivering several kinds of hydrophobic drugs and the drug-loaded systems have showed a significantly antiproliferative activity. The obtained results demonstrated that F127-conjugated polymers could be potential nanocarriers for drug delivery systems.
Keywords: Dendrimer, heparin, pluronic, nanocarrier, anticancer drug, green synthetic process