Paclitaxel-polyurethane film for anti-cancer drug delivery: Film characterization and preliminary in vivo study

Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) films incorporated with an anti-cancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) were prepared using a solvent casting method for potential applications to stent-based drug delivery and the local treatment of malignant tumors around gastrointestinal stents. The films were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and PTX micro-aggregates were observed when the drug loading was > 2.7 wt%. The in vitro release study revealed that the amount of drug released from the film was virtually independent and cumulative percentage release was inversely proportional to the drug loading. When plotted against the square root of time, the cumulative percentage release was initially linear, but the fraction of the linear region decreased with increasing drug loading, indicating that diffusion-controlled release is not applicable to the PTX molecules in micro-aggregates. When 1.25% PTX-PU films were placed under pre-existing CT-26 tumors in mice, tumor growth was slowed by an average of 65.5% compared to that in the control group.

Electrospun polyurethane/Eudragit ® L100-55 composite mats for the pH dependent release of paclitaxel on duodenal stent cover application

“…Therefore, for 1:1 ratio of PU and Eudragit, more PTX was entrapped inside the Eudragit component and can be released once Eudragit is eroded. The remaining PU component cannot react with pH and will just undergo normal diffusion process but since we only used PBS media, it is predicted that it can take time for the whole payload to be released (Jeong et al, 2007;Kang et al, 2010).…”

Designing polymeric microparticles for biomedical and industrial applications

“…The main reason for interest in PUs is because of their excellent physical properties, such as elasticity, abrasion resistance, durability, chemical stability and easy processability [87]. These properties enable the use of PUs in several biomedical applications [86], including pacemaker lead insulation [88,89], breast implants [90,91], heart valves [92,93], vascular prostheses [94,95], bioadhesives [96,97] and vehicles for controlled delivery of active compounds [98,99].…”

Local Delivery of Antiproliferative Agents via Stents

“…A PTFE-covered stent could be impregnated with an anti-proliferative drug, which is co-soluble in a carrier polymer solution. The drug-incorporated carrier polymer fills the micropores of the e-PTFE membrane, and the drug is released when the water-soluble carrier-polymer dissolves slowly [8,57]. The drugs can also migrate away from the insoluble carrier polymer such as polyurethane via simple diffusion in a rubbery-state polymer [7].…”

“…Thus, PU has been the most widely used polymer for local drug delivery via stent. Polyurethane films incorporated with paclitaxel (PTX) have been used in suppressing malignant tumor growth around biliary stents as well as benign tissue hyperplasia caused by placement of esophageal and urethral stents [57,[60][61][62][63]. When gemcitabine was incorporated in a polyurethane film, in vitro release behavior and in vivo toxicity of the gemcitabine were studied in an animal model [9,37,38].…”