Nanosized paclitaxel particles from supercritical carbon dioxide processing and their biological evaluation.

The rapid expansion of a supercritical solution into a liquid solvent (RESOLV) technique with benign supercritical carbon dioxide was applied to obtain aqueous suspended nanoparticles of the highly potent anticancer drug paclitaxel. The paclitaxel nanoparticles were protected from agglomeration by using a known nontoxic stabilization agent. The aqueous suspended paclitaxel nanoparticles of different average particle sizes were evaluated in vitro against human breast cancer cells. The results suggest that the nanosized paclitaxel particles are effective, with an antineoplastic activity comparable to that of the commercial paclitaxel formulation. The technique should be generally applicable to the processing of nanoparticles from other important drugs with aqueous solubility problems.