A synergistic combination therapy with paclitaxel and doxorubicin loaded micellar nanoparticles

Doxorubicin was chemically conjugated to a biodegradable polymeric carrier as a polymer-doxorubicin (polymer-Dox) conjugate via an acid labile Schiff-base bond. Then, paclitaxel was physically encapsulated by the polymer-Dox conjugate to self assemble in water as micellar nanoparticles with both doxorubicin and paclitaxel in one nanoparticle. In this way, doxorubicin and paclitaxel were combined. The preparation of the polymer-doxorubicin conjugates, encapsulation of paclitaxel, characterization of nanoparticles was systematically studied and the biological evaluation of the free drug combination as well as the micellar platform combination in vitro was thoroughly detailed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.