Enhanced therapeutic effect of paclitaxel with a natural polysaccharide carrier for local injection in breast cancer.

The side effects and inefficiency of paclitaxel (PTX) in clinic have been became a major problem for cancer chemotherapy. The local drug delivery constructed by injectable hydrogel has been suggested as the alternative due to its superior properties such as tumor selectivity, minimally invasive administration and sustained drug release behavior. Polysaccharides have been commonly used as a gelling agent to constitute injectable hydrogel due to its wide resources, biocompatibility and bioactive functions. Here, we reported an injectable drug carrier with enhanced therapeutic effect based on Pinus koraiensis polysaccharide (PKP). Their interaction, morphology and mechanical properties were studied. Interestingly, gels exhibited excellent injectable property including rapid recovery time, excellent thixotropy ability and good rheological property after injection, and these special properties make them more proper to be constructed as an injectable drug carrier. In addition, the biocompatibility of gel was demonstrated in terms of hemolysis analysis. PTX-loaded gel showed excellent tumor inhibition effect against 4T1 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines in vitro, and exhibited the significant tumor growth suppression and reduced systemic toxicity in vivo. The successful construction of PTX-loaded gel demonstrates that PKP can be used as a promising carrier in local drug delivery.