Delivery of cisplatin from Pluronic co-polymer systems: liposome inclusion and alginate coupling.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the use of Pluronic F127 (PF) hydrogels incorporating liposomes and/or grafted with alginate (AP) for the parenteral delivery of cisplatin. The physicochemical properties such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), polarity and sol-gel transition temperature, as well as in vitro drug release of developed hydrogels were examined. The sol-gel temperature of PF, PF with liposomes and AP was 26.4, 19.7 and 26.6 degrees C, respectively. A hydrogel with stronger strength was obtained by alginate coupling (AP) according to SEM images and viscosity kinetics as compared to PF. Both liposomes and hydrogels could sustain the release of cisplatin to a certain level. The drug release from the vehicles decreased in the order of PF > liposomes > or = AP > or = PF/liposomes > AP/liposomes. The burst release effect of cisplatin was inhibited when using the AP/liposomes composite system as the vehicle. Formulations were administered intratumorally in melanoma-bearing mice. The respective liposomes or hydrogels did not increase cisplatin accumulation in melanomas compared to the control (aqueous solution). PF/liposomes and AP/liposomes, respectively, increased cisplatin deposition by 2.5- and 4.4-fold. To our best of knowledge, the present work is the first report to investigate the drug delivery from PF-alginate conjugates.