Novel Strategy to Fabricate PLA/Au Nanocomposites as an Efficient Drug Carrier for Human Leukemia Cells in Vitro

Anticancer studies of drug encapsulated polyethylene terephthalate-Co-polylactic acid nanocapsules

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anticancer activity of anticancer drugs (5-fluorouracil and 6-thioguanine) in polymeric nanocapsules in the presence and in the absence of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles toward Hep2 cancer cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used for quantitative measurements for the anticancer cell activity. Encapsulated drug in polyethylene terephthalate-polylactic acid copolymer (PET-co-PLA) nanocapsules in the presence and absence of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles were prepared via the W/O/W emulsification solvent-evaporation method. Morphology of the nanoparticles was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

CONCLUSION

The average size of the polymeric nanocapsules, gold nanoparticles, and iron oxide nanoparticles were found to be in range of 230-260, 18 -20 nm, 5-10 nm, respectively. The findings in this study inferred that incorporated drug in polymeric nanocapsules with gold nanoparticles and iron oxide nanoparticles show better anticancer activity when compared with encapsulated drug in polymeric nanocapsules.

CdTe quantum dots with daunorubicin induce apoptosis of multidrug-resistant human hepatoma HepG2/ADM cells: in vitro and in vivo evaluation

Cadmium telluride quantum dots (Cdte QDs) have received significant attention in biomedical research because of their potential in disease diagnosis and drug delivery. In this study, we have investigated the interaction mechanism and synergistic effect of 3-mercaptopropionic acid-capped Cdte QDs with the anti-cancer drug daunorubicin (DNR) on the induction of apoptosis using drug-resistant human hepatoma HepG2/ADM cells. Electrochemical assay revealed that Cdte QDs readily facilitated the uptake of the DNR into HepG2/ADM cells. Apoptotic staining, DNA fragmentation, and flow cytometry analysis further demonstrated that compared with Cdte QDs or DNR treatment alone, the apoptosis rate increased after the treatment of Cdte QDs together with DNR in HepG2/ADM cells. We observed that Cdte QDs treatment could reduce the effect of P-glycoprotein while the treatment of Cdte QDs together with DNR can clearly activate apoptosis-related caspases protein expression in HepG2/ADM cells. Moreover, our in vivo study indicated that the treatment of Cdte QDs together with DNR effectively inhibited the human hepatoma HepG2/ADM nude mice tumor growth. The increased cell apoptosis rate was closely correlated with the enhanced inhibition of tumor growth in the studied animals. Thus, Cdte QDs combined with DNR may serve as a possible alternative for targeted therapeutic approaches for some cancer treatments.