Cellular uptake and in vitro drug release studies on paclitaxel-loaded poly(caprolactone)-grafted dextran copolymeric nanoparticles

Biodegradable and biocompatible polymers play a key role to provide a solution for sustained chemotherapy, when engineered to nanostructure. One such effort has been put forward to engineer self-assembled poly(caprolactone)- grafted dextran (PGD) core-shell micellar vehicle for anticancer drug (paclitaxel) and presented in this study. Paclitaxel-loaded PGD nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a modified oil/water emulsion method and characterized by laser light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and zeta potential measurements. The effects of the copolymeric compositions of PGD NPs on drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release, cellular uptake, and cell viability of NP formulation with paclitaxel were investigated. The drug encapsulation efficiency was determined spectrophotometrically, and in vitro drug release was estimated using dialysis bag. Human gastric cancer cell line (SNU-638) were used to image and measure the cellular uptake of fluorescent PGD NPs. Cancer cell viability of the drug-loaded PGD NPs was measured by crystal violet staining method. From the results obtained on various aspects, we inferred that the above formulated drug-loaded PGD NPs have significant drug encapsulation efficiency, cellular uptake, and the cancer cell mortality.