Preparation and evaluation of a novel anticancer drug delivery carrier for 5-Fluorouracil using synthetic bola-amphiphile based on lysine as polar heads

- A novel bolaamphiphile molecule with lysine as hydrophilic part was synthesized.
- The synthesized bolaamphiphile could self-assemble to form nano-sized vesicles.
- The vesicles were pH-sensitive and have tumor-targeting potential.

A novel bolaamphiphile surfactant N,N′-(dodecane-1, 12-diyl) bis (2,6-diaminohexanamide) (DADL) was designed and synthesized using l-lysine and 1,12-diaminododecane as the hydrophilic and hydrophobic part, respectively. After separation and purification, the structure of the synthetic bolaamphiphile surfactant was verified by FTIR, MS and 1H NMR. The synthetic bolaamphiphile was able to self-assemble to form vesicles. After formulation screening, vesicles loaded with 5-Fluorouracil (5-Fu) were prepared with Tween 60 and DADL by sonication and were examined by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Micro-FTIR was applied to investigate the conformation of the bola molecules within the vesicle membrane. The release profile of the vesicles showed a pH-sensitive and sustained release. No significant toxicity was observed in an in vitro cell viability assay. The antitumor efficacy of the 5-Fu-loaded vesicles on H22 tumor-bearing mice was remarkably high due to the EPR effects. These results show that our novel bolaamphiphile derived from lysine has excellent potential as a pH-sensitive drug carrier.

281