Synthesis and biological evaluation of boronated polyglycerol dendrimers as potential agent for neutron capture therapy

Abstract

In this work, the polyglycerol dendrimer (PGLD) generation 5 was used to obtain a boronated macromolecule for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The PGLD dendrimer was synthesized by the ring opening polymerization of deprotonated glycidol using polyglycerol as core functionality in a step-growth processes denominated divergent synthesis. The PGLD dendritic structure was confirmed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H-NMR, 13C-NMR) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI-TOF) techniques. The synthesized dendrimer presented low dispersion in molecular weights (Mw/Mn = 1.05) and a degree of branching of 0.82, which characterize the polymer dendritic structure. Quantitative neutron capture radiography (QNCR) was used to investigate the boron-10 enrichment of the polyglycerol dendrimer. The in vitro citotoxicity to Chinese hamster ovary cells of 10B-PGLD dendrimer indicate lower cytotoxicity, suggesting that the macromolecule is a biocompatible material.