Design and characterisation of calcium carbonate microspheres for anticancer drug delivery

D Kalenichenko,I Nabiev,A Sukhanova,G Nifontova

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2058/1/012009

Abstract

The development of delivery systems providing prolonged release of antitumor drugs represents one of the challenges in designing and optimization of novel tools for cancer therapy. The employment of spherical inorganic microparticles, in particular, calcium carbonate vaterite microspheres, as microcarriers appears promising because of their porous, matrix structure, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Here, we summarize the results of the development of the approaches to synthesis of calcium carbonate vaterite microspheres with narrowed size distribution and microencapsulation of low-molecular-weight anticancer drugs, such as doxorubicin hydrochloride into obtained microspheres. Supplementing the reaction mixture with a thickener defines fabrication of homogeneous vaterite microparticles with a spherical shape and an average size of 2 to 3 μm. Synthesised microspheres ensure prolonged release of doxorubicin at physiological pH values and can be used as a delivery system and as a structural component for development of a theranostic platform for tumour treatment and diagnosis.

Highlights

Microparticles with a matrix/porous structure represent promising carriers for delivery of antitumor agents with low and high molecular weights e.g., anthracycline antibiotics, alkaloids, and hormones [1, 2]
The CaCO3 microspheres obtained with the addition of the glycerol solution exhibited a narrower size distribution and a smaller particle diameter
It was shown that incorporation of even 1 mg of DOX into sized calcium carbonate microspheres (2.5 ± 0.2 μm) in a buffered aqueous medium at pH 6.5 by the adsorption technique resulted in a drug encapsulation efficiency not exceeding 29% [3]

Summary

Introduction

Microparticles with a matrix/porous structure represent promising carriers for delivery of antitumor agents with low and high molecular weights e.g., anthracycline antibiotics, alkaloids, and hormones [1, 2]. The use of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) microspheres as matrices is advantageous due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, susceptibility to pH-dependent erosion [1, 2, 4], and mesoporous internal structure [1], which allows the embedment of different functional components (drugs, bioactive compounds, etc.) [1,2,3]. These microspheres could be useful for easy and cost-effective production of the delivery systems for cancer treatment [1, 2, 4]. Vaterite microspheres can be used as a substrate to prepare polyelectrolyte microcapsules using layer-by-layer adsorption of oppositely charged

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion