Synthesis of Polyglycerol/PolyCaprolactone Nanocopolymers as Innovative Architectures for Drug Delivery
摘要
Nanoparticles represent an innovative class of drug delivery systems that have gained increasing interest in nanotechnology applied to medicine. This study focused on the development of two Polyglycerol/PolyCaprolactone Nanocopolymers to be able to carry pharmaceuticals. The copolymers were characterized by FTIR, NMR, TG, DSC, MALDI, SEM, and DLS techniques. Two monomer initiators (glycerol and 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)propane) have been used, and the polymerization was obtained by anionic ring-opening polymerization of the glycerol carbonate, with CO2 liberation leading to a branched polyether. The hyperbranched polymer was employed as a macroinitiator to initiate the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone, resulting in the multiarm star copolymers. The structures for the nanocopolymers were proposed based on nuclear magnetic resonance results. Hemolytic studies revealed that the copolymers do not have hemolytic activity. The copolymers were tested for safety against human cells and toxicity in cancer cells. The tests indicated that they are safe for in vivo applications and do not have anti-cancer efficiency, corroborating their purpose as a polymeric support for drug delivery.