DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Year:2014 | Volume:22 | Issue:3|Papers Count:3

Background Selective delivery of anticancer agents to target areas in the body is desirable to minimize the side effects while maximizing the therapeutic efficacy. Anthracycline antibiotics such as doxorubicin (DOX) are widely used for treatment of a wide variety of solid tumors.This study evaluated the potential of a polymeric micellar formulation of doxorubicin as a nanocarrier system for targeted therapy of a folate-receptor positive human ovarian cancer cell in line.Results DOX-conjugated targeting and non-targeting micelles prepared by the dialysis method were about 188 and 182 nm in diameter, respectively and their critical micelle concentration was 9.55 mg/ ml. The DOX-conjugated micelles exhibited a potent cytotoxicity against SKOV3 human ovarian cancer cells. Moreover, the targeting micelles showed higher cytotoxicity than that of non-targeting ones (IC50=4.65 mg/ml vs 13.51 mg/ml).Conclusion The prepared micelle is expected to increase the efficacy of DOX against cancer cells and reduce its side effects.

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Background: The main concern in formulation of antibodies is the intrinsic instability of these labile compounds.To evaluate the physicochemical stability of antibody in dry powder formulations, physical stability of IgG1 and a monoclonal antibody (trastuzumab) during the spray drying process was studied in a parallel study and the efficacy of some sugar based excipients in protection of antibodies was studied.Results: The SDS-PAGE analysis showed no fragmentation of antibodies after spray drying in all formulations. The secondary structure of antibodies contained 40.13 to 70.19% of b structure in dry state. Also, CD spectroscopy showed the similar secondary structure for trastuzumab after reconstitution in water. ELISA analysis and cell culture studies were conducted in order to evaluate bioactivity of monoclonal antibody. Formulations containing combination of excipients provided maximum tendency of trastuzumab to attach to the ELISA antigen (86.46%±2.3) and maximum bioactivity when incubated with SKBr3 cell line (the cell viability was decreased to 65.99%±4.6). Incubation of formulations with L929 cell line proved the biocompatibility of the excipients and non-toxic composition of formulations.Conclusion: The IgG1 and trastuzumab demonstrated similar behavior in spray drying process. The combination of excipients containing trahalose, hydroxypropyl beta cyclodextrin and beta cyclodextrin with proper ratio improved the physical and chemical stability of both IgG1 and monoclonal antibody.