(48ah) Chromonic Nanocarriers for Chemotherapeutics: Size Distribution and Control Release Studies

Conventional chemotherapy fails to release the drug in the controlled manner; rather they release the drug instantly due to which re-administration is required as therapeutic index falls. Moreover, they target both the cancer cells and non-cancer cells which make the treatment of the cancer cells highly ineffective due to excessive toxicities. Recently, the nanoparticle mediated drug delivery for chemotherapeutics has gained much attention. The present study reports the use of a novel class of materials – Chromonics in cancer drug delivery. Folic acid as a chromonic material has been explored to develop nanocarrier for sustained release of chemotherapeutic drugs in-vitro. With the help of a biocompatible polymer as a tool, folate nano-domains were formed from self-assembled liquid crystalline folate solutions. These nano-domains were crosslinked to form a stable nanoparticle system. The effect of different factors like crosslinking agent, relative polymer and folate concentration, on the size distribution was investigated in detail. Based on the observations, we have reported that not only the synthesis but also the size of the developed nanoparticles can be controlled by varying the folate: HPMC weight ratios. The present study then explored the release of drugs from these nanocarriers. We have investigated the release of folic acid as a model drug from these nanoparticles as well as release of methotrexate and cytarabine as an anticancer drug for the period of 60 days. It was observed that release of drug was nanoparticle’s size-dependent, release medium dependent, pH of the release medium dependent, crosslinking agent and its concentration dependent. The significant part of the current study is the synthesis of chromonic nanoparticles, how the size can be controlled, how controlled release can be obtained as well as how the release profiles can be modified depending on the dosage forms. Therefore, we can say that folate nanoparticles can be a potent nanocarrier for the sustained release of cancer drugs.