CONTROLLED RELEASE OF CAFFEINE FROM THREE DIMENSIONAL NETWORKS BASED ON POLY(METACRYLIC ACID) AND CASEIN - ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF CAFFEINE CONCENTRATION ON RELEASE PROCESS

Abstract

Everyday demands for safer and more efficient therapy for many diseases, especially serious ones such as various types of cancer, put various challenges in front of modern science. One of them lies in the fact that numerous anticancer drugs are poorly-water soluble and therefore their encap-sulation and controlled release are quite demanding processes. In the present study, we deepened our research of carrier based on hydrophilic poly(methacrylic acid) modified with amphiphilic ca-sein, in which poorly water-soluble model drug caffeine was encapsulated (PMAC-Caf hydrogels). It was investigated how neutralization degree of methacrylic acid (MAA) and amount of encapsulated caffeine affected swelling behavior of the PMAC-Caf hydrogels and caffeine release. Easy, one pot, simultaneous synthesis of the carrier and the encapsulation of caffeine is presented, obtaining thereby as prepared PMAC-Caf drug delivery system that could respond to the specific demands of the tar-geted delivery of the poorly water-soluble drug - protecting it in the environment which simulated human stomach and releasing it in the environment which simulated human intestines. Changing the synthesis parameters (neutralization degree of MAA and/or amount of encapsulated caffeine) we achieved controlled release of caffeine, indicating that the number of the required doses of the drug in the treatment and its side effects could be reduced. Results showed that the PMAC-Caf drug deliv-ery systems have huge potential for controlled release of poorly water-soluble drugs.