Ricerc@Sapienza

Polymer nanomaterials have received a great deal of interest as vehicles used for diagnostic and therapeutic agents [1]. The loading efficiency of a bile salt/block copolymer coformulation toward the fluorescent anticancer antibiotic doxorubicin has been studied. The coformulation is based on the anionic bile salt sodium cholate (NaC) and a nonionic triblock copolymer of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) denoted EO100-PO65-EO100 (F127) that itself forms micelles in water with a core composed mostly of PPO and a PEO corona.

Hypothesis: Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DX) is widely used as a chemotherapeutic agent, though its severe side-effects limit its clinical use. A way to overcome these limitations is to increase DX latency through encapsulation in suitable carriers. However, DX has a high solubility in water, hindering encapsulation. The formulation of DX with sodium cholate (NaC) will reduce aqueous solubility through charge neutralization and hydrophobic interactions thus facilitating DX encapsulation into poloxamer (F127) micelles, increasing drug latency.