Micellar nanocarriers for anticancer drug melanin

Abstract

The effective biocompatible and partially biodegradable micellar nanocarriers for encapsulation of the anticancer drug eumelanin were created. Such nanocarries are the products of self-assembly of asymmetric diblock and triblock copolymers, which comprised chemically complementary (methoxy)poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(acrylic acid) blocks of a variable length. A chemical structure and solubility of the eumelanin, the vital activity product of black yeast “Nadsoniella nigra sp. X-1, was characterized. Peculiarities of the micellization process, morphology, size and stability of the developed micellar nanocarries were highlighted. The eumelanin encapsulation into micellar nanocarries with different morphology and a state of the obtained drug/micelle systems were studied and discussed.