Micelles are self-assembled, nano-sized colloidal particles which could serve as a carrier for small hydrophobic drug molecules with poor pharmacokinetics. In the present study, we have developed a polymeric micellar system, constituted by the self-assembly of an amphiphilic lipid-based co-polymer where hydrophilic block poly(ethylene glycol) is linked to two hydrophobic moieties, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and α-tocopherol via an amino acid linkage as shown in Figure 1. The synthesized polymers were characterized by IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Micellar system was loaded with hydrophobic drug, curcumin, and actively targeted to tumor by attaching glycoprotein transferrin on the micellar surface. The transferrin receptor expression on cancer cells can be up to 100-fold higher than the average expression in normal cells owing to their rapid proliferation rate and iron demand, thereby transferrin has been explored as a targeting ligand for nanocarriers to deliver therapeutic agent into cancer cells. The micelles size and surface charge size were measured by Zetasizer. Transferrin modified Vit-E/PEG-5k conjugated polymeric micelles (VPM) and unmodified VPM showed mean hydrodynamic diameter of 114.2±1.82 nm and 110.8±1.82 nm respectively. The tumor-targeted drug-loaded micelles were evaluated for drug loading, stability and in vitro release profile. Cellular uptake study indicated that the Tf-VPMs were taken up by cancer cells with higher efficacy compared to VPM. The therapeutic efficacy of the newly developed curcumin loaded mixed micellar system will be assessed.

Transferrin modified vitamin E: Conjugated lipidic mixed micellar system as nanocarrier for the delivery of curcumin in cancer

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.