Folate-mediated targeted and intracellular delivery of paclitaxel using a novel deoxycholic acid-O-carboxymethylated chitosan–folic acid micelles

摘要

BackgroundA critical disadvantage for successful chemotherapy with paclitaxel (PTX) is its nontargeting nature to cancer cells. Folic acid has been employed as a targeting ligand of various anticancer agents to increase their cellular uptake within target cells since the folate receptor is overexpressed on the surface of such tumor cells. In this study, a novel biodegradable deoxycholic acid-O-carboxymethylated chitosan–folic acid conjugate (DOMC-FA) was used to form micelles for encapsulating the anticancer drug PTX.