The cytotoxic effects of lipidic formulated gold porphyrin nanoparticles for the treatment of neuroblastoma

Abstract

Objective

Nanotechnology has been identified as a promising platform in the improvement of the design and development of drug delivery systems. In the present study we investigated the potential of lipidic nanoparticles consisting of gold porphyrin for the treatment of neuroblastoma.

Materials and methods

To characterize the size of the lipidic gold porphyrin nanoparticles, we used transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The in vitro cytotoxic effect on neuroblastoma activity was examined using XTT cell proliferation assay, then IC₅₀ values were calculated. In vivo safety and toxicity were studied using intraperitoneal injection of gold porphyrin nanoparticles into normal animals. Finally, tumor size measurement and animal survival were studied to investigate the therapeutic effect of lipidic gold porphyrin nanoparticles on neuroblastoma growth.

Results

We found that incorporation of gold porphyrin into lipidic nanoparticles resulted in a 16-fold increase in size. Subsequent in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity studies further showed that the lipidic gold porphyrin nanoparticles could decrease systemic toxicity, as well as inhibiting tumor growth following administration into the neuroblastoma bearing mice.

Conclusion

The delivery of lipidic gold porphyrin nanoparticles by incorporation with lipidic formulation is feasible approach to treat neuroblastoma. We await further studies to evaluate tumor killing kinetics.

Keywords:

• nanoparticles
• lipidic formulation
• gold porphyrin
• neuroblastoma

Acknowledgments

The work was supported by HKU Small Project Funding #200907176012 and the Area of Excellence Scheme (AoE/P-10/01) established under the University Grants Committee (C-M Che). The authors would like to thank the Electron Microscopy Unit at Department of Pathology at HKU for providing assistance with electron microscopy.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.