Porous Starch-Based Capsule as an Effective Colon-Targeting Carrier for Oral Paclitaxel Delivery

Oral delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs has the potential to revolutionize intestinal tumor care, since it is regarded as a noninvasive therapeutic approach that can reduce systemic toxicity and prevent frequent injection. An oral carrier was chitosan-coated porous starch, which was coupled with hyaluronic acid through both sodium trimetaphosphate-mediated cross-linking reaction and hydrogen bonding. Hyaluronic acid cross-linked porous starch (HPS) provides more −OH active sites for nucleation and enrichment of paclitaxel (PTX) in pores; PTX was bound through hydrogen bonds to form a monolayer in porous starch, causing PTX to fill pores by π–π stacking with each other. The targeting of PTX release and tumor inhibitory effects of PTX/HPS coated with chitosan both in vitro and in vivo were demonstrated to be an effective strategy for colonic adenoma therapy. The encapsulated modified porous starch is universal and opens up a pathway for the adsorption and targeted release of chemotherapeutic drugs.