Investigation on preparing an active drug delivery system for a chitosan-micelle-paclitaxelaptamer to treat cancer

Abstract

Development of paclitaxel-loaded was prepared by an ionic-gelation method using Chitosan, Pluronic® F127, and DNA aptamer conjugate to treat cancer cells in vitro. These polymeric micelles were self-assemblied into copolymer blocks of approximately 69 nm diameter in an aqueous media. Anticancer drug (PTX) can be loaded at a high encapsulation efficiency of 83.28±0.13% and loading capacity of 9.12±0.34%. The prepared Apmicelles had a spherical shape and a mean diameter ranging at 86.22±1.45 nm. Through an in vitro release study, the Ap-micelle formulation exhibited a biphasic drug release with a moderate initial burst, followed by a sustained release profile of 29-35% in the first 12 hours and 85-93% after 12 days at pH 7.5 receiving media. In vitro cytotoxicity of free PTX and PTX loaded Apmicelles were evaluated using SK-BR-3 breast cancer cell line. The IC50 doses determined by the MTT assay showed the greater activity of PTX loaded Ap-micelles over free PTX, and these Ap-micelles killed cells up to 89-93% after 6-48 hours. These results demonstrated that DNA aptamer incorporated with copolymer micelles are biocompatible and have the potential to be used as anticancer drug carriers.