Enzymatic biodegradable micro-reactors for therapeutic applications

Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) is a well known biocompatible polymer, widely used as drug immobilization systems. In this work poly(epsilon-caprolactone) microparticles with average size between 5 and 25 microm have been prepared by O/W emulsion evaporation method. Inside the microparticles, we have encapsulated Glucose Oxidase with the aim of preparing micro-reactors for enzymatic therapy. These microparticles were structurally characterized and its enzymatic activity analyzed in order to improve the enzyme entrapment. Thus, at the optimum synthesis conditions the enzyme entrapped in the microparticles showed an enzymatic activity of (29.9 +/- 2.1)% comparing with the same amount of free enzyme. Moreover the microparticles maintained a (70.4 +/- 3.2)% of their initial enzymatic activity after placing them in buffer solution for two weeks.