(600e) Novel Double Packaged System for Localized Drug Delivery for Ovarian Cancer

The main challenge of our research has been to develop a drug delivery system that apart from being cost effective would also be able to reduce toxicity and provide a control over the release of chemotherapeutic drugs in Ovarian Cancer patients. In this project, we have developed a model drug delivery system consisting of non-ionic surfactant vesicles (niosomes) packaged within a biodegradable, temperature and pH sensitive hydrogel network. The Chitosan and niosome conditions were altered so as to optimize the release rates. Two ovarian cancer drugs Paclitaxel and Carboplatin were used for encapsulation. It was found that medium molecular weight chitosan with a crosslinker:chitosan ratio of 4:1 corresponding to a pH of 7.4 resulted in the finest controlled release. Surface characteristics, such as the interaction between the niosomes and chitosan were determined using Surface Forces Apparatus and Atomic Force Microscopy. The cytotoxicity and selectivity of the chitosan-niosome system was tested in normal and cancer cells. Our system was found to be more selective to cancer cells and also provided less toxicity than with the drugs alone. Our results will help in the development of a low cost and improved method for drug delivery with application to intracavitary ovarian cancer treatment and other cancer types.