Anti-cancer Drugs Impregnated by CO2 Supercritical Fluid Technology in Biodegradable Ureteral Stents

Urothelial tumors of upper urinary tract cancer are ranked among the most common types of cancers worldwide and they has been considered as one of the more expensive to treat due of its long-term propensity of recurrence. To overcome the problems of conventional therapies, such as the need for frequent drug instillation and poor tolerance we developed a biodegradable ureteral stent impregnated by supercritical fluid CO2(SCF) with the most commonly used anti-cancer drugs, namely epirubicin, doxorubicin, paclitaxel and gemcitabine. We hypothesized that this type of delivery device increases the time of contact as the drugs are released closer to the site of action leading to a local delivery system. The impregnation was carried out at 40oC and 100bar for 1.5h. The release kinetics of developed anti-cancer drug-eluting stents was measured in artificial urine solution (AUS) for 9 days.

direct and indirect contact of the anti-cancer biodegradable stents with the T24 and a non-cancerigenous (HUVEC) cell lines confirm the anti- tumoral effect of the stents impregnated with for all the four anti-cancer drugs, reducing around 75% of the viability of the T24 cell line after 72h and no killing effect in the HUVEC cells. This study has proven the viability of preparing an effiecient system using supercritical fluids impregnation.