Two conjugates of anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) covalently bound by the hydrolytically degradable hydrazone bond to the polymer carrier based on water-soluble N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymers were synthesized and their properties were compared, namely their behavior in vivo. The polymer carriers differed in dispersity due to different methods of synthesis; the carrier with relatively high dispersity (HD) was prepared by free radical polymerization (Mw=29,900 g/mol, D=1.75) and the carrier with low dispersity (LD) by controlled radical polymerization (Mw=30,000 g/mol, D=1.13). Both polymer-Dox conjugates showed prolonged blood circulation and tumor accumulation of the drug in comparison with the free drug; e.g. the tumor-to-blood ratio for the polymer-bound Dox was 3-5 times higher. The LD polymer-Dox conjugate exhibited moderately higher tumor accumulation than the HD one at a dose of 1x15 mg Dox (eq.)/kg. Also, their anti-tumor activity did not differ when injected at this dose. However, the increase of the dose to 1x25 mg Dox (eq.)/kg resulted in the enhanced therapeutic activity of the conjugates, especially of the LD one with 100% of long-term survivals. The dispersity of polymer drug carriers influenced the tumor accumulation rate, which affected the overall anti-cancer activity of polymer-drug conjugates.

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague Czech Republic

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