Dopamine-Loaded Polymer-Drug Conjugates for Potential Synergistic Anti-Cancer Treatment

The combination of dopamine with anticancer drugs can result in enhanced anticancer activity. Polymer-drug conjugates (PDCs) containing anticancer drugs, such as platinum-based drugs, and doxorubicin together with dopamine were prepared. PDCs were characterized followed by in vitro cytotoxicity studies using pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell lines. The particle size analysis revealed the particles sizes of the PDCs in the range of 15.68-179.8 nm with PDI in the range of 0.373-0.687. T3 and T6 displayed promising cytotoxic effects with IC50 values of 5.25 and 11.56 mu g/mL when compared to the free drugs (29.65 mu g/mL for K2PtCl4 and 14.96 mu g/mL for procaine). The findings revealed that combining dopamine with anticancer drugs is a promising approach to develop effective therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.