Preparation of Doxorubicin-Hydrochloride Nanoliposomes by Ethanol Injection-pH Gradient Method and Their Safety Evaluation

A new type of ethanol injection-pH gradient method was established to produce Doxorubicin-Hydrochloride Nanoliposome (DHNP). The characteristics of DHNP were examined by Zetasizer. The acute toxicity and chronic toxicity trials were conducted in Kuming mice with different doses of DHNP. The results showed that the DHNP had the uniform distribution size, diameter ranged in 140 similar to 170 nm; its entrapment rate could reach as high as 99.85%, and it was relatively stable in low temperature. The LD50 of the DHNP is 31.69 mg/kg. In the chronic toxicity study, body weight, hematocrit, the mean red blood cell volume, platelets counts and percentage of eosinophil at the dose of 6 mg/kg and 9 mg/kg groups were significantly different (p < 0.05) compared with control group, while the other parameters had no significantly difference. In the tissue analysis, pathological change was found in the lung at the treated group, and its pathological degree increased as the dose increased, while there were no other pathological changes detected in other tissues. This study demonstrates that the DHNP prepared by ethanol injection-pH gradient method possesses the advantage of uniform distribution size, high encapsulation efficiency, big drug loading rate, and its toxicity is lower than free doxorubicin.