Preparation and investigation of high solid content PTX-loaded nanoparticles dispersion via nanoprecipitation method

Abstract

The improvement of the solid content of the hydrophobic drugs (such as paclitaxel (PTX), etc.) loaded nanoparticles (NPs) dispersion is important for enhancing drug-loaded efficiency and reducing the cost in production and application. A diblock copolymer methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone-co-1,4,8-trioxa[4.6]spiro-9-undecanone) (mPECT) is synthesized via the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone and 1,4,8-trioxa[4.6]spiro-9-undecanone (TOSUO) with methoxy poly(ethyleneglycol) (mPEG） as the initiator. The chemical structures and thermal properties of mPECT are characterized by 1HNMR, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, etc. PEG45.45-b-P(C28.33-co-T5.38) (mPECT-2) is able to self-assemble into stable NPs in water via nanoprecipitation method at a high solid content (≤25 wt%) and their freeze-dried powders can well re-disperse in water. The paclitaxel (PTX) is chosen as a hydrophobic drug model and successfully encapsulate into the mPECT-2 NPs via the same method at a high solid content. The encapsulation efficiency, cytotoxicity and in vitro release of PTX-loaded NPs are investigated. The results suggest that the behavior of the drug-loaded mPECT-2 NPs prepared at a solid content of 25 wt% is similar to that of NPs prepared at a solid content of 1 wt%, which indicate that increasing solid content of polymer has no negative effect on the properties of NPs dispersion in application. In summary, the freeze-dried NPs prepared from the high solid content dispersion (≤25 wt%) has a good redispersibility and exhibits great potential in cost control of preparing NPs dispersion used as drug delivery system.