Polymer micelle formulations of proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib for improved metabolic stability and anticancer efficacy in human multiple myeloma and lung cancer cell lines.

Carfilzomib (CFZ) is a second-generation proteasome inhibitor drug approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Contrary to its excellent antimyeloma activity, CFZ has shown only limited efficacy in patients with solid malignancies. This lack of efficacy has been attributed in part to rapid degradation of CFZ in the body, possibly hindering the ability of CFZ to access the proteasome target in solid tumors. We hypothesized that polymer micelles, a currently Food and Drug Administration-approved nanoparticle drug delivery formulation, may protect CFZ from metabolic degradation and thus expand the clinical utility of the drug as an anticancer agent. To test our hypothesis, we prepared CFZ-entrapped polymer micelle particles with various compositions and drug release profiles and examined the extent of the CFZ metabolism in vitro using mouse liver homogenates. We also assessed the cytotoxic activities of the CFZ-entrapped micelle formulations in human cancer cell lines derived from B lymphocytes (RPMI-8226) and the lung (H460). Our data indicated that polymer micelle-based formulations can improve metabolic stability and cytotoxic effects of CFZ compared with free CFZ in human cancer cell lines tested. Taken together, these results suggest that polymer micelles may have potential as a delivery system for CFZ with an extended therapeutic utility for nonhematologic malignancies in the future.