Influence of Hydrophobic Chains in Nanocarriers on Antitumor Efficacy of Docetaxel Nanoparticles

The composition of amphiphilic nanocarriers can affect the antitumor efficacy of drug-loaded nanoparticles, and should be researched systematically. In this paper, to study the influence of hydrophobic chains, an amphiphilic copolymer (PEG45PCL17) and hydrophilic PEG (PEG45) were utilized as nanocarriers to prepare docetaxel-loaded nanoparticles (DTX/PEG45PCL17 nanoparticles and DTX/PEG45 nanoparticles) through an anti-solvent precipitation method. The two DTX nanoparticles presented a similar drug loading content of approximately 60% and a sheet-like morphology. During the preparation procedure, the drug loading content affected the morphology of DTX nanoparticles, and the nanocarrier composition influenced the particle size. Compared with DTX/PEG45 nanoparticles, DTX/PEG45PCL17 nanoparticles showed a smaller mean diameter and better in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity. The cytotoxicity of DTX/PEG45PCL17 nanoparticles against 4T1 cells was 1.31 μg mL-1, 3.4-fold lower than that of DTX/PEG45 nanoparti...