Poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polycaprolactone nanoparticles and their use as drug delivery vehicles

AEI 95

Margarita Herrera-Alonso, mherrera@Princeton.EDU and Robert K. Prud'homme, prudhomm@princeton.edu. Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
Amphiphilic block copolymers have attracted interest in recent years as drug delivery vehicles because of their capacity to encapsulate lipophilic drugs, medical imaging and diagnostic agents. In aqueous media, the block copolymers self-assemble into micelles (in thermodynamic equilibrium) or nanoparticles (kinetically-arrested), consisting of a hydrophobic core stabilized by a hydrophilic shell. We discuss the formation of nanoparticles from poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polycaprolactone block copolymers for use as drug delivery vehicles. To determine the effect of the structure of the core-forming block on the loading and release of the solute, we have studied two different polycaprolactone blocks: poly(e-caprolactone) which is semicrystalline, and poly(4-methyl-e-caprolactone) which is amorphous.