Effect of targeting ligand designation of self-assembly chitosan-poloxamer nanogels loaded Paclitacel on inhibiting MCF-7 cancer cell growth

Abstract

In this study, we investigated two formulations of chitosan-Pluronic P123 with different folate ligand designation for targeted delivery of Paclitaxel (PTX), in which folic acid (FA) was directly conjugated to chitosan (FA-Cs-P123) or substituted onto P123 (Cs-P123-FA). The results showed that the FA content of Cs-P123-FA was determined at 0.71 wt/wt% which was significantly higher than that of FA-Cs-P123 (0.31 wt/wt%). Two copolymers were low critical gel concentrations (CGC). FA-Cs-P123 and Cs-P123-FA nanogels performed high PTX encapsulation efficiency reaching 95.57 ± 5.51 and 92.51 ± 6.68 wt/wt%, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and zeta potential analysis indicated that the PTX-loaded nanogels were spherically formed around 60 nm in diameter along with positive charge. Furthermore, the PTX release profile was slow and it was controlled by the pH of the medium. In particular, in vitro biocompatibility assays indicated that both FA-Cs-P123 and Cs-P123-FA exhibited good biological compatibility with a human foreskin fibroblast cell line and well uptake efficiency into MCF-7 cancer cells. Cs-P123-FA nanogel significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity of PTX in comparison with FA-Cs-P123. The result indicates that Cs-P123-FA nanogels with a higher decorated FA content perform a better targeting efficiency; therefore, they could have great potential application towards breast cancer treatment.

Keywords:

• Chitosan-Pluronic
• pluronic P123
• paclitaxel loaded nanoparticles
• folic acid ligand
• Breast cancer
• MCF-7 cells

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Author contributions

Data curation, Van Toan Nguyen and Ngoc Quyen Tran; Formal analysis, Dinh Trung Nguyen; Investigation, Phuong Doan, Van-Dat Doan and Tan Phat Dao; Methodology, Van Toan Nguyen; Project administration, Vitalii Plavskii and Ngoc Quyen Tran; Resources, Ngoc Quyen Tran; Software, Dinh Trung Nguyen; Supervision, Ngoc Quyen Tran; HA; Writing–original draft, Van Toan Nguyen; Writing–review and editing, Ngoc Quyen Tran and Vitalii Plavskii.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) under Grant no. QTBY01.03/21-22 and the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research under grant no. F21V-003.