Micromachines (Sep 2017)

A Method to Encapsulate Small Organic Molecules in Calcium Phosphate Nanoparticles Based on the Supramolecular Chemistry of Cyclodextrin

  • Zhongming Zhu,
  • Feng Li,
  • Fei Zhong,
  • Kang Zhai,
  • Wei Tao,
  • Gengyun Sun

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi8100291
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 10
p. 291

Abstract

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Calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNPs) encapsulating small organic molecules, such as imaging agents and drugs, are considered to be ideal devices for cancer diagnosis or therapy. However, it is generally difficult to encapsulate small organic molecules in CPNPs because of the lack of solubility in water or binding affinity to calcium phosphate. To solve these issues, we utilized the carboxymethyl β-cyclodextrin (CM-β-CD) to increase the solubility and binding affinity to small organic molecules for the encapsulation into CPNPs in this work. The results indicated that the model molecules, hydrophilic rhodamine B (RB) and hydrophobic docetaxel (Dtxl), are successfully encapsulated into CPNPs with the assistance of CM-β-CD. We also demonstrated the CPNPs could be remarkably internalized into A549 cells, resulting in the efficient inhibition of tumor cells’ growth.

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