Preparation of novel shell-ionotropically crosslinked micelles based on hexadecylamine and tripolyphosphate for cancer drug delivery

Abstract

Aims

Micellar systems have the advantage of being easily prepared, cheap, and readily loadable with bioactive molecular cargo. However, their fundamental pitfall is poor stability, particularly under dilution conditions. We propose to use simple quaternary ammonium surfactants, namely, hexadecylamine (HDA) and hexadecylpyridinium (HDAP), together with tripolyphosphate (TPP) anion, to generate ionotropically stabilized micelles capable of drug delivery into cancer cells.

Methods

optimized mixed HDA/HDAP micelles were prepared and stabilized with TPP. Curcumin was used as a loaded model drug. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. Moreover, their cellular uptake was assessed using flow cytometry and confocal fluorescence microscopy.

Results

The prepared nanoparticles were found to be stable under dilution and at high temperatures and to have a size range from 139 nm to 580 nm, depending on pH (4.6-7.4), dilution (up to 100 times), and temperature (25 – 80 °C). They were effective at delivering their load into cancer cells. Additionally, flow cytometry indicated the resulting stabilized micellar nanoparticles to be non-cytotoxic.

Conclusions

The described novel stabilized micelles are simple to prepare and viable for cancer delivery.

Keywords:

• Alkylamines
• micelles
• TPP
• cancer uptake
• crosslinking
• curcumin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Deanships of Scientific Research of The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.