Antitumor effect of an injectable in-situ forming drug delivery system composed of a novel tissue adhesive containing doxorubicin hydrochloride

Our group has developed a novel tissue adhesive composed of biomacromolecules and organic acid derivatives which have good biocompatibility and exhibit high bonding strength to living tissues. We propose to use this tissue adhesive for in-situ forming drug delivery system (DDS) for cancer chemotherapy. In a previous work, we had prepared a novel in-situ forming DDS composed of human serum albumin (HSA) and tartaric acid derivative (TAD) containing doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), and we had demonstrated an in vitro release profile of DOX from HSA–TAD gel for approximately up to 100 h. Here, we report on antitumor effect of this injectable in-situ forming DDS. Local injection of DOX by the HSA–TAD was administered to human colon carcinoma (WiDr) implanted subcutaneously onto the immunodeficient mouse. The results of the in vivo experiments showed that the presence of DOX in blood of mice was detectable for up to 3 days, and that the tumor volume was effectively minimized with injection of HSA–TAD containing DOX. The in-situ forming DDS with the novel tissue adhesive containing DOX, therefore, is a useful technique for cancer chemotherapy.