Antitumor efficacy of doxorubicin released from crosslinked nanoparticulate chondroitin sulfate/chitosan polyelectrolyte complexes.

It is demonstrated that nanoparticulate PEC with a crosslinked shell sustains DOX release and increases DOX activity against cancer cells. CSMA was synthesized to prepare PEC with chitosan. The double bonds among CSMA were used to form a shell crosslink. The released DOX from DOX-loaded PECs against human cancer KB cells and A549 cells were qualitatively traced by confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry, and quantitatively measured by capillary electrophoresis. All the results implied the DOX-loaded PEC with a crosslinked shell had the best anti-cancer potency of free DOX and the DOX-loaded PEC prepared from pure chondroitin sulfate and chitosan in both the cell lines.