IDTQ A NEW RESEARCH GROUP LOCATED IN CORDOBA, ARGENTINA: PHASE EQUILIBRIUM AND ITS APPLICATION TO IMPREGNATE BIOPOLYMERS AND TO DESIGN DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

JUAN MANUEL MILANESIO; ALFONSINA ANDREATTA; CÉSAR GÓMEZ; MIRIAM STRUMIA; LIDIA MARÍA QUINZANI

Campinas

Workshop; Workshop on Supercritical Fluids and Energy (SFE´13); 2013

University of Campinas, Brazil; Virginia Tech, USA

IDTQ is a recently developed research group with a high potential and mainly focused on supercritical technology applied to the extraction of natural products and its use on human health and also applied to solve energy problems. Also the extracted bioactive compounds are being studied to develop new drug delivery systems using polymers with supercritical technology. The synthesis of polymers from glycerol or its derivatives and their application to develop controlled release drug delivery systems are one of the main interests in our research group. Plants with important properties for human health accompany mankind from its origins. In spite of the great evolution of health sciences, still exist pathologies without a definitive cure or with therapies that cause undesirable effects. Within this frame it is necessary search new therapeutic agents.   Glycerol is a polyfunctional molecule, with three alcohol groups and with a high reactivity and versatility [1]. Using esterification reactions it is possible to develop new polymers with surfactant properties [1]. These polymers, with a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic region, can be used for drug encapsulation [2-5] using supercritical technology for particle precipitation [6]. Particularly, they can be used as carriers for highly hydrophobic drugs inside micelles, like cancer chemotherapy drugs [2, 4-5]. In this work we will present preliminary results for the synthesis of polymers via glycerol esterification and from glycerol carbonate, and its application for designing controlled release drug delivery systems. Within the scope of these preliminary results are phase equilibrium data for glycerol, carbon dioxide and the polymers.     References   [1] C.H. Zhou, J.N. Beltramini, Y.X. Fan, G.Q. Lu; Chemoselective catalytic conversion of glycerol as a biorenewable source to valuable commodity chemicals, Chem Soc Rev 37 (2008) 527-549 [2] M.E. Fox, F.C. Szoka, J.M.J. Fréchet, Soluble polymer carriers for the treatment of cancer: The importance of molecular architecture, Acc Chem Res, 42 (2009) 1141-1151. [3] J. Green, Z. Tyrrell, M. Radosz, Micellization of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(caprolactone) in compressible near critical solvents, J Phys Chem C, 114 (2010) 16082-16086. [4] L.Y. Lee, S.H. Ranganath, Y. Fu, J.L. Zheng, H.S. Lee, C.H. Wang, K.A. Smith, Paclitaxel release from micro-porous PLGA disks, Chem Eng Sci, 64 (2009) 4341-4349. [5] Z.L. Tyrrell, Y. Shen, M. Radosz, Multilayered nanoparticles for controlled release of paclitaxel formed by near-critical micellization of triblock copolymers, Macromol, 45 (2012) 4809-4817. [6] S.D. Yeo, E. Kiran, Formation of polymer particles with supercritical fluids: A review, J Supercrit Fluids, 34 (2005) 287-308.