Amphiphilic biodegradable nanoparticles for optimization of drug delivery and targeting in cancer treatment

It is widely recognized that biodegradable nanoparticles may play an important role for developing new drug delivery systems, especially in the case of drugs which cannot be used properly due to their characteristics (such as low solubility and low bioavailability) so increasing their therapeutic efficacy and minimizing the side effects. The researches reported in this thesis had the aim to develop two nanosystems designed to optimize the delivery of drugs and their active or passive targeting to tumor cells, respectively: as to passive targeting, a nanosystem based on an amphiphilic blend of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poloxamers projected to improve the cytotoxicity of curcumin on human mesothelioma MSTO-211H cells; as to active targeting, a nanosystem based on PLGA, poloxamers and hyaluronic acid projected to allow a more selective cytotoxic effect of irinotecan on human breast cancer HS578T cells that overexpress CD44 receptors (in comparison with L929 mouse fibroblasts). Both these systems were studied for what concerns their characteristics (in terms of size, morphology, zeta potential, yield, loading efficiency, release profile) and biological properties (in terms of biocompatibility, effectiveness and cell internalization). The findings obtained evidence that these two PLGA-based nanosystems may be useful to optimize the delivery of drugs to cancer cells and suggest the opportunity to evaluate them in in vivo experimental models.