Loading paclitaxel into porous starch in the form of nanoparticles to improve its dissolution and bioavailability

In this work, paclitaxel was loaded into porous starch in the form of nanoparticles (PNPS), and the properties of PNPS were investigated by using raw paclitaxel and the system of paclitaxel directly loaded into porous starch (PPS) as control groups. According to the tested results, the drug loading ( DL ) and encapsulation efficiency ( EE ) of PNPS were 14.13%   ±   0.27% and 73.92%   ±   0.54%, higher than that of PPS (9.79%   ±   0.31% and 71.17%   ±   0.67%) respectively. Compared with raw paclitaxel and PPS, PNPS exhibited the more prominent dissolution rate and bioavailability, in which the bioavailability of PPS and PNPS were 2.94 and 5.42 times of that of raw paclitaxel respectively. In addition, the IC 50 values of raw paclitaxel, PPS and PNPS on Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC) cells were 17,703.41   ±   15.76   μM, 95.10   ±   5.32   μM and 85.68   ±   7.38   μM respectively. Furthermore, the residues of acetone in PPS and PNPS were less than the ICH limit for acetone in class III solvents. To summarize, the preparation of PNPS was a potential method to improve the dissolution and bioavailability of paclitaxel.