Altering associations of doxorubicin‐loaded alginate esters micelles in presence of β‐cyclodextrin

The aim of this article was to evaluate the effects of β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) on doxorubicin (DOX)‐loaded alginate esters (SA‐C₁₆) micelles (DOX/SA‐C₁₆) in aqueous solution. DOX was physically loaded into SA‐C₁₆ micelles by an o/w emulsion method with a substantial encapsulation efficiency (EE) level (36.12%), and DOX/SA‐C₁₆ was distributed in size diameters of approximately 254 nm. SA‐C₁₆ as carriers for the DOX can lead to the formation of associative networks in aqueous solutions between the hydrophobic tails of SA‐C₁₆ and DOX, and the dried morphology of DOX/SA‐C₁₆ aggregate was spherical shape. Addition of β‐CD to the system of DOX/SA‐C₁₆ facilitated decoupling of these associations via inclusion complex formation between β‐CD cavities and the polymer hydrophobic tails that produced the release of DOX immediately, and the EE level was dropped to 0.08%, and at the same time the size distribution of aggregate was increased to about 413 nm, moreover, the aggregate was relatively large and becoming irregular spherical shape. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40702.