Exploring the potential of surface-active copolymers on P123 micelles for drug solubility enhancement and in vitro cytotoxicity assay

This study presents the self-assembly of polyethylene oxide (PEO)-block-polypropylene oxide (PPO)-block-polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based block copolymer (BCP) commercially known as Pluronic^® P123 in water and in the presence of different copolymeric surfactants (L61, L62, L64, and F68) with varying degree of hydrophilicity, i.e., %EO content. The clouding behavior demonstrates the varied phase transition ranging from solution, blue point (BP), and cloud point (CP). The characteristics of the micelles in the single and mix system are characterized utilizing dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) techniques at different temperatures. These scattering approaches provide an insightful information on the micelle size and shape. The size variations in self-assembled micelles designated the micelles to undergo growth/transition in shape from spherical to elongated ellipsoidal as function of temperature. Additionally, the application of these nanoscale micellar aggregates as carriers for delivering the anticancer drug Quercetin (QCT) was undertaken by a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis to gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of the mix-micellar system as an ideal platform for drug delivery. A comprehensive investigation of drug release kinetics is presented using various kinetic models. The MTT (cytotoxicity assay) assay is used to gauge the effectiveness of the QCT-loaded copolymeric micelles.

Graphical abstract

Micellar transition of 5% w/v P123 in water and in the presence of copolymeric surfactants as additives at 0.2% weight fraction (fix) at different temperatures