Biodegradable Polymersomes for the Delivery of Gemcitabine to Panc-1 Cells

Abstract EN

Traditional anticancer chemotherapy often displays toxic side effects, poor bioavailability, and a low therapeutic index.

Targeting and controlled release of a chemotherapeutic agent can increase drug bioavailability, mitigate undesirable side effects, and increase the therapeutic index.

Here we report a polymersome-based system to deliver gemcitabine to Panc-1 cells in vitro.

The polymersomes were self-assembled from a biocompatible and completely biodegradable polymer, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(caprolactone), PEO-PCL.

We showed that we can encapsulate gemcitabine within stable 200 nm vesicles with a 10% loading efficiency.

These vesicles displayed a controlled release of gemcitabine with 60% release after 2 days at physiological pH.

Upon treatment of Panc-1 cells in vitro, vesicles were internalized as verified with fluorescently labeled polymersomes.

Clonogenic assays to determine cell survival were performed by treating Panc-1 cells with varying concentrations of unencapsulated gemcitabine (FreeGem) and polymersome-encapsulated gemcitabine (PolyGem) for 48 hours.

1 μM PolyGem was equivalent in tumor cell toxicity to 1 μM FreeGem, with a one log cell kill observed.

These studies suggest that further investigation on polymersome-based drug formulations is warranted for chemotherapy of pancreatic cancer.