Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 22, 2026

Synthesis and Characterization of an Aspirin-fumarate Prodrug that Inhibits NFκB Activity and Breast Cancer Stem Cells
Published on: January 18, 2017
Highly Water-Soluble Methotrexate-Polyethyleneglycol-Rhodamine Prodrug Micelle for High Tumor Inhibition Activity
Xiao Duan1,2,3, Xue Yang4, Changfeng Li4
1Department of Pharmacy, Changzhi Medical College, Changzhi, 046000, Shanxi, People's Republic of China. duanxiao0211@outlook.com.
Abstract:
Highly water-soluble prodrug micelle (50-fold compared with free MTX) of methotrexate-polyethyleneglycol-rhodamine (MTX-PEG-rhodamine) and MTX-mPEG was synthesized by the esterification reaction. The stability of the prodrug micelles was evaluated in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). The tumor volume of the saline, MTX, and MTX-PEG-rhodamine groups was increased 3.7-fold, 2.8-fold, and 1.8-fold, respectively, compared with the initial tumor volume. TUNEL and drug distribution results further confirmed that the micelle of MTX-PEG-rhodamine possessed fewer side effects on the normal tissue compared with MTX. The prodrug micelle showed four advantages: retention of the drug activity site, higher water solubility of methotrexate (MTX), ease of preparation and application, and preferential accumulation in tumor tissues. These advantages of MTX-mPEG make it a promising drug delivery system (DDS) for clinical use.
Related Concept Videos
Solubility Equilibria: Ionic Product of Water
The ionic product of water varies with temperature, and its value is 1.0 x 10−14 at standard experimental conditions. Per Le...
Prodrugs
Prodrugs help overcome...
Inhibition of Cdk Activity
Factors Affecting Solubility
Solubility Equilibria
The...
Physical Properties Affecting Solubility
As for any solution, the solubility of a gas in a liquid is affected by the attractive intermolecular forces between solute and solvent species. Unlike solid and liquid solutes, however, there is no solute-solute intermolecular attraction to overcome when a gaseous solute dissolves in a liquid solvent since the atoms or molecules comprising a gas are far separated and experience negligible interactions. Consequently, solute-solvent interactions are the sole...

