Copolymers polyanhydride

Within a series of closely related polyanhydride copolymers, the relative ratios of the two monomers have a marked effect on the rate of degradation of the resulting polymer. An example is shown in Fig. 

FIGURE 1 Rate of polyanhydride degradation versus time. PCPP and SA copolymers were formulated into 1.4-cm-diameter disks 1 mm thick by compression molding, and placed into a 0.1 M pH 7.4 phosphate buffer solution at 37°C. The cumulative percentage of the polymer which degraded was measured by absorbance at 250 nm. 

Implants in the rabbit corneas exhibited no observable inflammatory characteristics over a period of 6 weeks. Compared to other previously tested polymers, the inertness of these polyanhydrides rivals that of the biocompatible poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. Histological examination of the removed corneas also revealed the absence of inflammatory cells (21)... 

Polyanhydrides based on unsaturated and fatty acid-derived monomers are shown in Table III. Poly(fumaric acid) (PFA) was fist synthesized by Domb et al. (1991) by both melt polycondensation and solution polymerization. The copolymer of fumaric acid and sebacic acid (P(FA-SA)) has been synthesized and characterized (Domb et al., 1991 Mathiowitz et al., 1990b). The mucoadhesive properties of this polymer... 

The analysis of 1H NMR spectra of aliphatic and aromatic polyanhydrides has been reported by Ron et al. (1991), and McCann et al. (1999) and Shen et al. (2002), and 13C NMR has been reported by Heatley et al. (1998). In 1H NMR, the aliphatic protons have chemical shifts between 1 and 2 ppm, unless they are adjacent to electron withdrawing groups. Aliphatic protons appear at about 2.45 ppm when a to an anhydride bond and can be shifted even further when adjacent to ether oxygens. Aromatic protons typically appear with chemical shifts between 6.5 and 8.5 ppm and are also shifted up by association with anhydride bonds. The sequence distribution of copolymers can be assessed, for example in P(CPH-SA), by discerning the difference between protons adjacent to CPH-CPH bonds, CPH SA bonds, and SA-SA bonds (Shen et al., 2002). FTIR and 111 NMR spectra for many of the polymers mentioned in Section II can be found in their respective references. 

Spectroscopy can also be used to assess drug-loading in these systems. Figure 3 is a H NMR spectrum for /)-nitroaniline-loaded P(CPH-SA) (50 50). The combination of these two techniques provides a standard for verifying the chemistry of polyanhydrides. UV spectroscopy has also been reported for determining the chemistry of copolymers (Leong et al., 1985). 

Several of the synthetic efforts outlined in Section II were motivated partially by the necessity of increasing the processability of polyanhydrides. Solubilities of the 20 80 copolymers of P(CPP SA) and P(FAD SA) are compared by Domb and Maniar (1993). They reported improved solubility of the later over former in several organic solvents including (in order of decreasing solubility) THF, 2-butanone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, acetone, and ethyl acetate. 

The branched aromatic polyanhydrides synthesized by Sanders et al. (1999 Mathiowitz et al., 1990b) demonstrated lower Tgs than the corresponding P(PCPP-SA) copolymers. The para-xylyl polymers synthesized by Anastasiou and Uhrich (2000a) (Pp-o-CPX and Pp-m-CPX) had systematically higher Tgs than the ortho-isomers (Po-o-CPX, Pm-o-CPX, P/uo-CPX). 

Most of the commonly used polyanhydrides, including the copolymers, are semicrystalline. Crystallinity is characterized by a variety of techniques... 

Fig. 4. Crystallinity of several polyanhydride copolymers as a function of composition. From Mathiowitz et al. (1990b). Reprinted with permission.

Whether in copolymers or blends, inhomogeneous erosion has a nontrivial effect on drug release kinetics as will be shown later. Leong et al. (1985) demonstrated that the pH of the degradation media also has a dramatic effect on the erosion rate, which increases with increasing pH. The acceleration of degradation of polyanhydrides with increase in pH is widely reported and has been used to speed up experiments (Shakesheff et al., 1994). 

Crosslinking of amine- or hydroxy-terminated PAMAM dendrimers using cyclic anhydride - amine or cyclic anhydride - hydroxy addition reactions was employed for preparation of crosslinked thin films of very low permeability [73], Polyanhydrides, such as maleic anhydride-methyl vinyl ether copolymers, were used as crosslinking components. In the case of amine-terminated PAMAM, crosslinking and chemical stability were further increased by imidization of the maleamic acid groups retro-Michael eliminations were followed by Michael additions to further crosslink the film. 

Vogel BM, Cabral IT, Eidelman N, Narasimhan B, Mallapragada SK (2005) Parallel synthesis and high throughput dissolution testing of biodegradable polyanhydride copolymers. J Comb Chem 7 921-928... 

Figure 5 General structure of polyanhydrides. R and R can be varied to modify degradation kinetics and profile. The lower frame shows the structure of P(CPP-SA), a polyanhydride copolymer, used in the Gliadel product. Abbreviations SA, sebacic acid CPP, carboxyphen-oxypropane.

Pharmaceutical research has to date been focused on polyanhydrides derived from sebacic acid (SA) and its copolymers with bis(p-carboxyphenoxy)propane (CPP) [75,113,115,119]. More recently, a new class of polyanhydrides was presented, containing fatty acid dimers (FAD) [ 116,118,258]. Erosion characteristics, microsphere preparation, pH-dependence, release rates, morphology, and in vivo performance of polyanhydrides from SA, CPP, and FAD have been intensely studied [75, 111-115,117, 119, 258-260]. Other unsaturated polyanhydrides have been derived from ricinoleic acid [261] and ricinoleic acid half-es-... 

Chemically-Controlled Systems. In these systems, the polymer matrix contains chemically-labile bonds. On exposure to water or enzymes the bonds hydrolyze, erode the three dimensional structure of the polymer and release the incorporated reagent into the surrounding medium. Depending on the polymer used, the erosion products may act as interferences, such as by altering the pH of the solution. Examples of these systems are polyglycolic acid (PGA) and a polyglycolic acid - polylactic acid (PGA/PLA) copolymer. PGA hydrolyzes to hydroxyacetic acid, and PGA/PLA hydrolyzes to lactic acid and hydroxyacetic acid. Other chemically-controlled systems are based on polyorthoesters, polycaprolactones, polyaminoacids, and polyanhydrides. 

As pointed out by Heller (2), polymer erosion can be controlled by the following three types of mechanisms (1) water-soluble polymers insolubilized by hydrolytically unstable cross-links (2) water-insoluble polymers solubilized by hydrolysis, ionization, or protonation of pendant groups (3) hydrophobic polymers solubilized by backbone cleavage to small water soluble molecules. These mechanisms represent extreme cases the actual erosion may occur by a combination of mechanisms. In addition to poly (lactic acid), poly (glycolic acid), and lactic/glycolic acid copolymers, other commonly used bioerodible/biodegradable polymers include polyorthoesters, polycaprolactone, polyaminoacids, polyanhydrides, and half esters of methyl vinyl ether-maleic anhydride copolymers (3). 

Polyanhydrides, such as poly[bis(p-carboxyphenoxy)propane sebacic acid] copolymers (Figure 4.14), are also used for the fabrication of biodegradable implants. Polymer degradation occurs via hydrolysis, the biscarboxyphenoxypropane monomer is excreted in the urine and the sebacic acid monomer is metabolized by the liver and is expired as carbon dioxide via the lung (Figure 4.14). 

Polyanhydrides Polyanhydrides have a hydrophobic backbone with a hydrolytically labile anhydride linkage. These polymers widely vary in chemical composition and include aliphatic, aromatic, and fatty acid-based polyanhydrides. The rate of degradation depends on the chemical composition of the polymer. In general, aliphatic polyanhydrides degrade more rapidly than the aromatic polymer. Hence, copolymer blends with varying ratios of aliphatic-to-aromatic polyanhydrides can be synthesized to suit specific applications. 

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