No abstract

Taxol (Paclitaxel) is a very potent anticancer drug used in chemotherapy treatments. Due to its hydrophobic nature, toxic solubilizing agents are used to administer the drug via intravenously. However, this systemic administration is associated with toxic side effects and drug limited efficacy. An alternative to these problems are polymeric micelles. The effectiveness of this drug delivery system is related to its size, modification of pharmacokinetics, drug delivery control and toxicity reduction. In this study, micelles based on methoxy Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-Poly(ε-caprolactone) (mPEG-b-PCL) copolymer loaded with Taxol were synthesized thorough an uncommon method namely powder formulation, using tert-butanol as co-solvent, to our knowledge no reported previously for these micells. Taxol was conjugated to the hydrophobic block of mPEG-b-PCL copolymer. Characterization of this system was done by means of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), observing good results as compared to previous reports.