Lipophilic-formulated gold porphyrin nanoparticles for chemotherapy.

ABSTRACT

Lipophilic formulation is an invaluable technique for the delivery of cancer drugs. Incorporation of poorly soluble and toxic compounds into a lipophilic carrier vehicle improves both the stability and compatibility in blood and body fluids. Currently, although a large proportion of novel cancer drugs are poorly water soluble, most existing drug carriers are only able to encapsulate hydrophilic drugs. As the ultimate goal of drug delivery (in particular cancer drug delivery) is to achieve high therapeutic effect with minimal toxicity, it would thus be beneficial to invest substantial efforts in the development of lipophilic carrier systems. Here we describe our technique to synthesize a lipophilic carrier for hydrophobic and toxic potent cancer drugs, such as gold(III) porphyrin.