Chitosan-based nanoconjugate for safe and effective delivery of docetaxel to cancer cells: An explorative study

The objective of the study was to develop novel chitosan-based nanoconjugate intended for intravenous drug delivery to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the docetaxel. Nanoparticles were prepared using the dialysis method, characterized using various spectroscopic studies like IR, NMR, and Mass, and evaluated for various drug delivery attributes. The designed carrier presented a particle size of 231 ± 0.92 nm with PDI value less than 0.3 which attributes the homogeneity of the polydisperse phase. The developed system not only offered 64.77% of entrapment efficacy and 35.23% of drug loading, but also found to be compatible with the erythrocytes. On the MDA-MB-231 invasive cancer cell lines, the efficacy of the developed system was far superior to the naïve drug and the developed system was able to enhance the bioavailable fraction in the plasma of rats’ vis-à-vis plain drug. The findings are encouraging and provide a system which not only enhanced the efficacy of DTX against MDA-MB-231 cells, but also improved its hemocompatability and bioavailability.