Advanced drug delivery 4 - PDC Flashcards
General considerations for polymeric drugs
- Inert and non-toxic
- Polycations generally more haemolytic and cytotoxic than polyanions
- Polyanions generally less cytotoxic but can cause anticoagulant activity
- Toxicity is affected by MW
- Many polymers can be immunogenic
Effect of MW of polymeric drugs on elimination from body
- Renal threshold of MW for elimination = ~40K Da
Biodegradable polymer:
- Can get broken down in the body so we can go above the renal threshold.
Non-biodegradable polymer:
- MW must be below renal threshold so that it can be excreted.
- Prevent accumulation of polymer in body
Ringsdorfs model
3(+1) model
What is a polymer drug conjugate
- Drug delivery which involves a polymer covalently conjugated to a drug
- API is low MWt
- Each polymeric chain carries several drug molecules
Discuss the Ringsdord model of PDC 3(+1)
PDCs consist of 3(+1 optional)
Components
- Hydrophilic polymeric backbone
- Several low MW drug molecules
- Biodegradable linker that joins these
- Optional: targeting group
HPMA copolymer-DOX
- First synthetic PDC to undergo clinical evaluation
- Drug: doxorubicin, anthracycline
- Drug delivery system designed to improve efficiency of doxorubicin while reducing toxicity to healthy cells
- The HPMA copolymer acts as a carrier for doxorubicin while reducing its toxicity
- Cardiac toxicity
What are angiogenic tumour vessels
Blood vessels formed in response to growth of a tumour
Tumour vessels <1-2mm
- No induction blood supply
- Obtains nutrients & O2 by diffusion
Tumour vessels >1-2mm
- Tumour grows
- Induction of angiogenesis
- Blood vessels formed in cancer are somewhat different to normal blood vessels: endothelium is disorganised and poorly formed
> 200 mm3
- Hypoxia and necrosis
- observed in ~ 20 % of tumour volume
What is angiogenesis
- Formation of new blood vessels
What is the Enhanced Permeability and Retention (EPR) Effect in tumour targeting?
- Enhanced permeability = accumulation of PDC in tumour tissue because of the leaky angiogenic tumour vessels
- There is enhanced retention due to less lympatic drainage
- Higher concentration of PDC in tumour which is the main rationale of suggesting PDC for cancer therapy
How can PDC be more selective for tumour cells than healthy cells/tissues
- Tumours have leaky angiogenic blood vessels due to the gaps
- This is not present in normal healthy tissue
- PDC are larger systems and have higher MW compared to low MW drugs
- They can permeate and accumulate causing retention in the tumour tissue at a much higher extent than healthy tissue because of their size
- Less off target binding and less SE
Dose thresholds and EPR effect
- EPR allows us to increase dose threshold compared to administering the free drug
- More drug reaches the tumour and the PDC is less toxic
EPR effect and dose thresholds for free dox and HMPA-copolymer-dox
Max tolerated dose for free dox: 60-80mg/m2
Max tolerates dose of HMA-dox: 320mg/m2