Synthesis of surfactant free PCL-PEG brushed nanoparticles with tunable degradation kinetics

A delivery system based on polymer nanoparticles (NPs) is developed and tested in relevant biological conditions for breast cancer treatment. epsilon-Caprolactone (CL) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) copolymers have been used for the one pot synthesis of surfactant free PEGylated NPs which are monodispersed, stable in physiological conditions and have size in the range 90-250 nm. The degradation behavior of these NPs has been investigated in cell medium and a relation between degradation time and molecular weight of the starting CL-based material has been established. This allows producing NPs with controlled degradation kinetics. Finally, selected NPs have been tested in 4T1 breast cancer cells to check their toxicity and to investigate the uptake process, in order to validate their use as targeted vectors for breast cancer treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.