e-polycaprolactone and D-±-tocopherol polyethylene glycol-1000 nanoparticles containing docetaxel aiming prostate cancer therapy

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the second most incident type of cancer among men. Only in Brazil, 61.200 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2016. Though a huge progress has been observed on the prostate cancer treatment over the last few decades, this pathology keeps being the second highest cause of deaths related to cancer among men. Regarding the indicated drugs for the treatment of this pathology, docetaxel appears as the first choice considering its effectiveness on therapeutics. However, many adverse effects are related to its use - such as neutropenia. The delivery of anticancer drugs from nanostructured delivery systems has been broadly studied, given the several benefits they offer: higher solubility, stability, enhanced permeability and retention (EPR effect) at the tumor site, allowing reduction in the number of administrations and side effects. Within this context, the present work aims to develop and characterize polymeric nanoparticles synthesized using -polycaprolactone and D-±-tocopherol polyethylene glycol-1000 loaded with docetaxel for prostate cancer therapy. The nanoparticles will be obtained by the nanoprecipitation technique and assessed for their physicochemical properties (size, zeta potential, polydispersity, morphology, entrapment efficiency, thermal properties, FTIR spectroscopy absorption profile, and in vitro release profile). The evaluation will be perfomed in vitro, thorugh the study of cell uptake by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry, besides the investigation of the cytotoxicity against prostate cancer cell lines.