PVA engineered microcapsules for targeted delivery of camptothecin to HeLa cells

Capsular microvectors are an important tool in the recent research field of nanomedicine to address a drug cargo for the therapeutic treatment of several pathologies. In this study we describe how the product of the conjugation of the polysaccharide chitosan with folate can be used as a coating of poly (vinyl alcohol), PVA, based microcapsules for an efficient targeting of HeLa cells. The influence of the coating on the bioadhesive properties of the vector and on its cargo capacity was also considered using camptothecin as an anticancer drug model. The coating strategy was finalized to exploit the good chemical versatility of PVA, used to form the shell of the vector. This study is a follow up of an investigation activity aiming to show the potentialities of PVA-shelled microcapsules or microbubbles as injectable microdevices supporting a theranostic approach for different types of tumour.

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► Coating of PVA-shelled microcapsules with chitosan–folate.
► Selective bioadhesion of microcapsules to HeLa Cells.
► Effective loading and release of camptothecin.
► In vitro anti-proliferative action of camptothecin loaded microcapsules.