Formulation of Poloxamers for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Poloxamers, also known as Pluronics®, are block copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO), which have an amphiphilic character and useful association and adsorption properties emanating from this. Poloxamers find use in many applications that require solubilization or stabilization of compounds and also have notable physiological properties, including low toxicity. Accordingly, poloxamers serve well as excipients for pharmaceuticals. Current challenges facing nanomedicine revolve around the transport of typically water-insoluble drugs throughout the body, followed by targeted delivery. Judicious design of drug delivery systems leads to improved bioavailability, patient compliance and therapeutic outcomes. The rich phase behavior (micelles, hydrogels, lyotropic liquid crystals, etc.) of poloxamers makes them amenable to multiple types of processing and various product forms. In this review, we first present the general solution behavior of poloxamers, focusing on their self-assembly properties. This is followed by a discussion of how the self-assembly properties of poloxamers can be leveraged to encapsulate drugs using an array of processing techniques including direct solubilization, solvent displacement methods, emulsification and preparation of kinetically-frozen nanoparticles. Finally, we conclude with a summary and perspective.

Development of a rapid and reliable analytical method for screening poloxamer 188 for use in cell culture process

“…The structure and synthesis enables the systematic variation of copolymer composition and length to produce families of poloxamers with unique chemical assets . Due to their amphiphilic properties, poloxamers are widely used in an array of pharmaceutical applications including drug solubilization, emulsification, and biomanufacturing …”

Nanodrug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer

“…At low ratios in aqueous media, copolymers exist separately, however, once the molar concentration is increased, aggregation occurs [61]. The aggregates known as nanomicelles, comprises of several copolymers in a spherical arrangement [62,63].…”

“…When attachments to the polymer functional groups are anticipated, complexes including carboxylic (COO − ) conjugate bases and amine (NH) bases are joined as the sequence terminating clusters [33]. At low ratios in aqueous media, copolymers exist separately, however, once the molar concentration is increased, aggregation occurs [61]. The aggregates known as nanomicelles, comprises of several copolymers in a spherical arrangement [62,63].…”

“…In another patent, nanomicelles encapsulating SN-38 formulation for chemotherapy of carcinoma were investigated. This development provided a nanomicelle formulation, including extended multiblock co-polymer with a SN-38 resulting from encapsulated camptothecin [61,138]. This SN-38 formulation is dominant over its camptothecin derivative since it is not reliant on stimulation by the detoxifying liver in vivo (Table 5) [138].…”

“…Bodrati in 2018 demonstrated the application of block-co-polymer nanomicelle of poly(oxyethylene)-block-poly(oxypropylene) copolymer in the administration of chemotherapeutic agents, providing noncovalent dissolvation, which minimized solubility issues [61]. Several copolymers are readily obtainable under the generic name of "poloxamers"/ "pluronics".…”