Liposome-like nanocapsules of dual drug-tailed betaine for cancer therapy.

Shuo Fang, Yuge Niu, Wei Zhang, Yemin Zhang, Liangli Yu, Yingyi Zhang, Xinsong Li

Index: Int. J. Pharm. 493 , 460-5, (2015)

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Abstract

A novel dual drug-tailed betaine conjugate amphiphile has been firstly synthesized in which the polar headgroup is derived from glycine betaine and the hydrophobic tails are chlorambucil molecules. The newly prepared conjugate undergoes self-assembly to form stable liposome-like nanocapsules as an effective carrier with high drug loading capacity. The nanocapsules showed higher cytotoxic effects to cancer cell lines than those of free chlorambucil in vitro, and inhibited tumor growth effectively in vivo. This strategy that utilizes new dual drug-tailed betaine conjugate amphiphile to construct a self-assembled nanoparticle drug delivery system may have great potential in cancer chemotherapy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.