title: Improved anti-proliferative effect of doxorubicin-containing polymer nanoparticles upon surface modification with cationic groups.
abstract: Polymer nanoparticles (PNPs) possessing a high density of drug payload have been successfully stabilized against aggregation in biological buffers after amine modification, which renders these PNPs positively charged. The resulting charge-stabilized PNPs retain their original narrow particle size distributions and well-defined spherical morphologies. This stabilization allows these PNPs to have an improved anti-proliferative effect on MDA-MB-231-Br human breast cancer cells compared to non-functionalized PNPs. As a non-cytotoxic control, similar surface-modified PNPs containing cholesterol in place of doxorubicin did not inhibit cell proliferation, indicating that the induced cytotoxic response was solely due to the doxorubicin release from the PNPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60208-3113, USA. ; Tel: +847-467-3347.
authors.forename: Sai Archana
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Krovi
authors.forename: Elden P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Swindell
authors.forename: Thomas V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: O'Halloran
authors.forename: Sonbinh T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Nguyen