FORMULATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMERIC NANOPARTICLES FOR CANCER TREATMENT CONCEPTUAL APPROACH

Purpose: Cancer treatments currently used in the clinic have demonstrated their effectiveness over the last 50 years, however, little has been done to improve their resultant toxic side effects. Most chemotherapy and radiation treatments produce varying outcomes in patients, from hair loss to nausea to infection and metastasis; this begs the question as to why there has been minimal research aimed at developing less harmful therapies. With the advent of nanotechnology during the last few decades, the drug development process has switched to biodegradable nanoparticle (NP) drug delivery systems as a means to improve drug efficacy, while reducing toxic side effects. In this project, formulation and characterization of biodegradable polylactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) NPs is discussed and performed, in order to provide cancer therapy options that could be more effective and less harmful. Methods: PLGA NPs have been used to encapsulate hydrophobic drugs, small molecules, DNA/RNA, etc. effectively, with high drug loading, depending on the formulation. In this project, PLGA NPs were used to encapsulate cancer therapy drugs using sonication and established water-in-oil-in water (W/O/W) procedures. Following formulation, the PLGA NPs were characterized via a Nanotrac particle size analyzer. The aforementioned PLGA NPs can now be used in in vitro and in vivo studies to determine their effectiveness as cancer treatments. Results: Several PLGA NP formulations were produced, with different loading components and sizes. Implementation of sonication and W/O/W emulsion techniques were important factors that affected NP size and drug loading. Regardless, from batch to batch, for each formulation, NP size was consistent (140-190nm). The small size of the PLGA NPs (<200nm) demonstrates the increased likelihood of uptake by cancer cells, either in vitro or in vivo, which is important for effective treatment. Conclusions: With the dawn of nanomedicine, particularly cancer therapy, the development of better, less harmful drugs is more likely. Through the use of PLGA NPs, an FDA-approved, biodegradable drug delivery system, cancer treatments could be more effective, due to the potential for targeting of cancer cells and reduced toxic side effects, ultimately increasing a patient's quality of life. Due to their small size, flexibility of content loading, surface functionalization, biodegradability/biocompatibility, and enhanced uptake by cancer cells, PLGA NPs could improve treatments and patient prognosis.