Antiinflammatory polymer‐bound steroids for topical applications. I. Synthesis and characterization

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Covalent binding of hydrocortisone and dexamethasone to hydrophylic biocompatible macromolecular carriers through hydrolizable carbonate linkage was investigated according to two complementary strategies. (a) Radical copolymerization of hydrocortisone‐21C‐vinylcarbonate with N‐vinylpyrrolidone (NVP,60°C), or N‐[tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl]acrylamide (THMMA, 50°C) in dimethylacetamide solution: In spite of a nearly zero reactivity ratio for the steroid monomer which behaves as a degradative transfer agent—CT ∼ 5.7 × 10−2 and 6.8 × 10−3 for NVP and THMMA, respectively–this process may afford fairly high molecular weight polymers (M̄w ≃ 104–105) with high enough hydrocortisone content (0.03–0.10 mole.fraction). (b) Condensation of the hydrocortisone or dexamethasone‐21C‐chloroformates onto poly(oxyethylene glycol) (M̄n = 6220) or hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC, M̄w = 1.35 × 105) in tetrahydrofuran solution (30°C): This straightforward process is of low efficiency (yields >50%), and only HPC derivatives show good chemical homogeneity.