Release of anticancer drug doxorubicin from biodegradable polymer coated porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds

In the current research slow release anticancer drug delivery system was prepared and drug release kinetics in vitro evaluated. Porous hydroxyapatite (HAp) as carrier material and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) as anticancer agent was used. DOX is an anthracycline drug commonly used in cancer chemotherapy. Unfortunately, its therapeutic potential is restricted cardiotoxicity and resistance developed by the tumor cells to the molecule after treatment. To prepare HAp-DOC composites, the porous bioceramic scaffolds were impregnated with doxorubicin in low vacuum conditions. 10% (HAp-10%PLA) and 20% (HAp-20%PLA) poly lactic acid and 20% (HAp-20%PCL) poly(8-caprolactone) solutions in dichloromethane were used to form the polymer coatings on the drug/bioceramic composites. In general there was a burst release observed from all the samples during the first 2 hours followed by a much reduced release profile. In the next 5 days the drug release from all the samples decreased in the following order: 20% PLA (from 56 ng/ml to 3 ng/ml), 20% PCL (from 196 ng/ml to 6 ng/ml), 10% PLA (from 497 ng/ml to 18 ng/ml). HAp-DOX composite without the polymer coating demonstrated the drug release reduction from 230 ng/ml to 13 ng/ml. The cumulative drug release was observed over 19 days.