Encapsulation of 2-methoxyestradiol within multifunctional poly(amidoamine) dendrimers for targeted cancer therapy

We report here a general approach to using multifunctional poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-based platform to encapsulate a potential anticancer drug for targeted cancer therapy. In this approach, amine-terminated generation 5 (G5) PAMAM dendrimers were sequentially modified with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FI) and folic acid (FA) via covalent conjugation, followed by an acetylation reaction to neutralize the remaining amines of the dendrimer surfaces. The synthesized multifunctional dendrimers (G5.NHAc-FI-FA) were then used to complex a potential anticancer drug, 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME) for targeted delivery of the drugs to cancer cells overexpressing high-affinity folic acid receptors (FAR). We show that the formed G5.NHAc-FI-FA/2-ME complexes with each dendrimer encapsulating approximately 3.7 2-ME molecules are water soluble and stable. In vitro release studies show that 2-ME complexed with the multifunctional dendrimers can be released in a sustained manner. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in conjunction with cell morphology observation demonstrates that the G5.NHAc-FI-FA/2-ME complexes can specifically target and display specific therapeutic efficacy to cancer cells overexpressing high-affinity FAR. Findings from this study suggest that multifunctional dendrimers may be used as a general drug carrier to encapsulate various cancer drugs for targeted therapy of different types of cancer.