In vivo evaluation of doxorubicin carried with long circulating and remote loading proliposome

Long circulating and remote loading proliposome (LRP-L) was a kind of transparent solution and composed of soybean phosphatidylcholine (SPC), cholesterol, polyethylene glycol derivative of distearoylphosphatidyl ethanolamine (PEG-DSPE) and oleic acid sodium salt. When LRP-L was mixed with 0.9% NaCl aqueous solution containing doxorubicin (DXR), liposomes formed and automatically loaded DXR, in which sonication and extruders were not needed. The average diameter of the liposomal DXR in saline was 129.0+/-1.9 nm and the encapsulation efficiency was 98.1+/-0.6%. The pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, acute toxicity and anticancer effect of DXR carried with LRP-L (LRP-L-DXR) were studied. The plasma concentration-time curves of DXR were best fitted to the triexponential decay curves. The area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of LRP-L-DXR was 22 and five times of free DXR (F-DXR) and conventional cardiolipin liposomal DXR (CL-DXR), respectively. Following i.v. administration, the biodistribution of LRP-L-DXR in the heart and the liver, unlike that of CL-DXR, was not greater than that of F-DXR. However, the biodistribution of LRP-L-DXR in the spleen was less than that of CL-DXR and greater than that of F-DXR. The acute toxicity of LRP-L-DXR was decreased compared with that of F-DXR. The anticancer effect of LRP-L-DXR was significantly increased compared with that of F-DXR in the ascitic M5076 tumor model of C57BL/6 mice and had no significant difference compared with that of doxorubicin HCl liposome injection (Doxil).