The targeted delivery of the drugs is currently one of the main topics in the field of nanomedicine. Many drug-candidate compounds have been found active in vitro, but had limited clinical effectiveness partly because of their side effects, low solubility, and/or other limitations of pharmaceutical parameters. Among various approaches to specifically target drug-loaded carrier systems to required pathological sites in the body, two seem to be most advanced--passive (EPR effect-mediated) targeting, based on the longevity of the pharmaceutical carrier in the blood and its accumulation in pathological sites with compromised vasculature, and active targeting, based on the attachment of specific ligands to the surface of pharmaceutical carriers to recognize and bind pathological cells. The aim of our work was to develop the method of preparation of loaded nanocapsules and their surface modification for passive targeting via EPR effect. Nanocapsules containing anticancer drugs (e.g. Taxol, Curcumine), were prepared using a method of direct encapsulation of emulsion droplets in polyelectrolyte multilayer shell. The oil cores containing selected drugs stabilized by an AOT/PLL (Poly L-Lizyne) surface complex were encapsulated with shells formed by layer-by-layer adsorption of polyelectrolytes. The average size of the obtained capsules was 100 nm. Surface of obtained capsules were modified by pegylation for passive targeting. In vitro anti-cancer activity of the nanoencapsulated anticancer drugs on CT26 CEA, 4T1 cancer cells was evaluated.
This work was supported by a grant from the Polish National Science Centre, grant no. UMO-2011/03/D/ST5/05635
ncszczep@cyf-kr.edu.pl
