Synthesis of paclitaxel polymeric micelles by microfluidic technology

ELENA SANMARCO; MARCELA A. MORETTON; LUCÍA POLICASTRO; DAILENYS ESPINOSA MARTINEZ; DIEGO A. CHIAPPETTA; FLORENCIA GIANNONI; MARTÍN CABALEIRO

Mar del Plata

Otro; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencias (SAIC-SAFE-SAB-SAP); 2019

Polymeric micelles (MPs) are nanoparticulates systems usually used to optimize drug delivery. MPs are generally composed by hydrophobic polymers and surfactants or amphiphilic co-polymers that form a hydrophobic core, where it is possible to include lipophilic drugs. Generally MPs are obtained by nanoprecipitation, where the bioactive molecules and the polymer are dissolved in organic solvent, such us acetone, and then are added in an aqueous solution containing surfactants. Then, the acetone is evaporated and the nanoparticles remain in an aqueous suspension. This process is substantially dependent on fluids dynamic, and the control of this, is critical to obtain homogeneous and reproducible results. In recent years, microfluidic technology-assisted nanomedicines synthesis (MT), where fluid are subtly controlled, significantly improve these processes and allow reproducibility between different batches. The objective of this project was to optimize the synthesis of MP and encapsulation of paclitaxel (PTX), a cancer drug used as a first-line treatment of breast and ovarian cancer through MT.To perform MPs microfluidic-assisted synthesis we obtain a micromixer chip with T design by the 3D printing technique. In addition, we synthetized MPs and PTX encapsulation in batch in traditional way in order to compare. In both cases, the quantification of PTX was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The linearity of the last method was evaluated, not observing differences between the retention times of the peaks corresponding to the MPs containing PTX and the standard solutions. Size of MPs was obtained by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The co-polymer of polycaprolactorna (PCL) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) in diblock arrangement (PEG-PCL) and different PTX concentrations were evaluated. Size, polydispersity and levels of PTX encapsulation were strongly optimized employing MT respect traditional methods.