Incorporation of the antitumor drug miltefosine into polymeric micelles

• Autor(a) principal: Feitosa, Valker Araujo
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/9/9135/tde-07062019-154449/
• topic: Alkylphosphocholines; Alkylphospholipids; Alquilfosfocolinas; Alquilfosfolipídios; Colloidal system; Drug-delivery systems; Nanoestrutures; Nanoesturutras; Poloxamer; Poloxamer; Sistemas coloidais; Sistemas para entrega de fármacos

Miltefosine (hexadecylphosphocholine, HePC), a synthetic antitumor designed from natural phospholipids, is clinically approved for cutaneous metastases of breast cancer and cutaneous lymphoma. This drug acts mainly at cellular membrane level, where it accumulates and interferes with lipid metabolism and lipid-dependent signaling pathways leading the cells to apoptosis. However, HePC systemic and peroral administration induces hemolysis and mucosal toxicity, respectively. To overcome these limitations, we investigated the protective properties of colloidal polymeric micelles (PM) composed by Pluronics, triblock copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide). We found that both Pluronic composition and concentration modulate the hemolytic profile of incorporated drug (HePC-PM) by increasing the drug amount to cause in vitro hemolysis. Moreover, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used to assess structural information of interactions between HePC and PM. Additionally, we showed that HePC-PM prevented mucosal irritation, decreasing bleeding and lysis of blood vessels in a chicken chorioallantoic membrane model. Interestingly, HePC-PM increased the in vitro selective cytotoxicity against cervix tumor cells rather healthy fibroblasts, suggesting a differential uptake of these nanostructures by tumor cells. Furthermore, we also found that HePC induces cytotoxicity and decrease cell survival, migration and proliferation in osteosarcoma cells in vitro. We showed that cytotoxicity by HePC is associated with caspase-3 activation, DNA fragmentation, apoptotic-like bodys formation and inhibition of both constitutive and cytokine-stimulated Akt/PKB phosphorylation. HePC-PM clearly reduces the drug cytotoxic effects. Finally, we demonstrated that Pluronic F127 polymeric micelles are efficient for cargo delivering the encapsulated drug preferentially into tumor cells rather than healthy cells. These findings together suggest that Pluronic F127 PM reduce drug side effects and provide a potential alternative for systemic delivery of HePC, as well as other amphiphilic drugs.