Anticancer potentials of metformin loaded coconut oil nanoemulsion on MCF-7, HepG2 and HCT-116 cell lines

Abstract

In order to load metformin in a nano formula and evaluate the produced nano form towards cancer cells, metformin was loaded on natural carrier coconut oil. The formed metformin-loaded coconut oil nanoemulsion was characterized by Zeta potential, particle size, drug content, drug release, and drug stability. The formed nanoemulsion was evaluated towards MCF-7, HepG2, and HCT-116 cell lines. Cell cycle analysis and apoptosis mechanism were studied. The nanoemulsion was created using deionized water, 1.5% Span 20, 1.5% Tween 80, 1.5% coconut oil, and 0.5% Metformin in an ultrasonicator to produce a homogenous solution. The anticancer activities of the metformin-loaded coconut nanoemulsion were highly improved compared to non-formulated metformin with IC50s of 8.3 ± 0.1 µg/ml, 12 ± 1.5 µg/ml, 2.685 ± 0.3 µg/ml for MCF-7, HepG2, and HCT-116 cell lines, respectively. There was a 76.5 ± 2.3 and 78.3 ± 3.2% increase in the number of apoptotic cells of MCF-7 and HepG2 cells after nanoemulsion treatment. This formula may be considered a new anticancer medication.

Keywords:

• mcf-7
• hct-116
• HepG2
• nanoemulsion
• metformin
• anticancer
• coconut oil

Authors’ contribution

Hadil Faris designed the experiment, El-Sayed Khafagy and Amr Selim performed methodology, Haifa F. data analysis, Serag Eldin and Mohammad Y. performed anticancer study, Ashwag S., Jawaher Abdullah and Sarah Salem validated the data, Hadil Faris and Fatma Alzahraa supervised the experiment, all authors contributed in the original draft writing, Hadil Faris and Fatma Alzahraa made the final revision.

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, through the Research Groups Program Grant no (RGP-1443-0049).

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, through the Research Groups Program Grant no (RGP-1443-0049).