The application of
Doxorubicin (DOX) in the
chemotherapy for
lymphoma is seriously hampered by the side effects of DOX, especially the
cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Nanoscale
micelle as a promising drug delivery system has gained more and more interest in
malignancy chemotherapy. In this study, we successfully fabricated DOX-loaded stereocomplex
micelle (SCM/DOX) from the equimolar mixture of the enantiomeric four-armed poly(
ethylene glycol)-
polylactide (PDM and PLM) copolymers. The SCM/DOX showed proper hydrodynamic size of ~90 nm and slow DOX release in
phosphate-buffered saline at pH 7.4. The antitumor activities of DOX, PDM/DOX, PLM/DOX, and SCM/DOX toward
lymphoma cells were tested in vitro and in vivo. Our data demonstrated that the SCM/DOX more effectively inhibited the cell proliferation than PDM/DOX, PLM/DOX, and free DOX in vitro. In the in vivo antitumor test, the SCM/DOX more effectively inhibited the growth of EL4
lymphoma, too. In addition, the
body weight loss caused by SCM/DOX was alleviated than DOX. More importantly, the
cardiotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity caused by DOX in mice were obviously attenuated compared to the free DOX treatment group. Taken together, all the results indicated that the SCM/DOX could inhibit the growth of EL4
lymphoma cells and attenuate the toxicity of DOX more efficiently, which suggested SCM/DOX was promising for the prevention and treatment of
lymphoma.