BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER POLYLACTIDE (PLA) AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN DRUG DELIVERY NANO-SYSTEMS.

Abstract

                             Along with the development of nanotechnology, drug delivery nano-systems (DDSs) have attracted a great deal of concern among scientists over the world, especially in cancer treatment. These DDSs not only improve water-solubility of anticancer drugs but also increase therapeutic efficacy and minimize side-effects of treatment method. In this article, the authors present some of their achivements in preparing and testing DDSs from polylactide (PLA) which is a favourite biodegaradable polymer used in biomedical applications. PLA was modified by hydrophilic polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), dalpha tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) to fabricate DDSs loading anti-cancer drugs including Curcumin (Cur) (Cur-PLA-PEG, Cur-PLATPGS) and Paclitaxel (PTX) (PTX-PLA-TPGS). These DDSs had very small size (40-300 nm) and highly improved water-solubility of drugs (Cur (350 folds), PTX (500 folds)). Enhancement of cell and tumor permeability as well as anti-proliferation of these DDSs was demonstrated by in vitro bioassays.