Chiara Botto

Entrapment of an EGFR inhibitor into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) improves its antitumor activity against human hepatocarcinoma cells

BackgroundIn hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), different signaling pathways are de-regulated, and among them, the expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Tyrphostin AG-1478 is a lipophilic low molecular weight inhibitor of EGFR, preferentially acting on liver tumor cells. In order to overcome its poor drug solubility and thus improving its anticancer activity, it was entrapped into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) by using safe ingredients for parenteral delivery.ResultsNanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) carrying tyrphostin AG-1478 were prepared by using the nanoprecipitation method and different matrix compositions. The best system in terms of mean size, PDI, zeta potential, drug loading and release profile was chosen to evaluate the anti-proliferative effect of drug-loaded NLC versus free drug on human hepatocellular carcinoma HA22T/VGH cells.ConclusionsThanks to the entrapment into NLC systems, tyrphostin AG-1478 shows an enhanced in vitro anti-tumor activity compared to free drug. These finding raises hope of future drug delivery strategy of tyrphostin AG-1478 -loaded NLC targeted to the liver for the HCC treatment.

Biocompatible Lipid Nanoparticles as Carriers To Improve Curcumin Efficacy in Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Curcumin is a natural molecule with proved anticancer efficacy on several human cancer cell lines. However, its clinical application has been limited due to its poor bioavailability. Nanocarrier-based drug delivery approaches could make curcumin dispersible in aqueous media, thus overtaking the limits of its low solubility. The aim of this study was to increase the bioavailability and the antitumoral activity of curcumin, by entrapping it into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). For this purpose here we describe the preparation and characterization of three kinds of curcumin-loaded NLCs. The nanosystems allowed the achievement of a controlled release of curcumin, the amounts of curcumin released after 24 h from Compritol-Captex, Compritol-Miglyol, and Compritol NLCs being, respectively, equal to 33, 28, and 18% w/w on the total entrapped curcumin. Considering the slower curcumin release profile, Compritol NLCs were chosen to perform successive in vitro studies on ovarian cancer cell lines. The results show that curcumin-loaded NLCs maintain anticancer activity, and reduce cell colony survival more effectively than free curcumin. As an example, the ability of A2780S cells to form colonies was decreased after treatment with 5 μM free curcumin by 50% ± 6, whereas, at the same concentration, the delivery of curcumin with NLC significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited colony formation to approximately 88% ± 1, therefore potentiating the activity of curcumin to inhibit A2780S cell growth. The obtained results clearly suggest that the entrapment of curcumin into NLCs increases curcumin efficacy in vitro, indicating the potential use of NLCs as curcumin delivery systems.

Lipid nanocarriers containing sorafenib inhibit colonies formation in human hepatocarcinoma cells.

Here, the potential of two nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) for controlled release of sorafenib was evaluated. The obtained systems showed characteristics suitable as drug delivery systems for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through parenteral administration. The use of a mixture between a solid lipid (tripalmitin) with a liquid lipid (Captex 355 EP/NF or Miglyol 812) to prepare NLC systems could give a higher drug loading capacity and a longer term stability during storage than that obtained by using only solid lipids. The obtained nanoparticles showed a nanometer size and high negative zeta potential values. Scansion electron microscopy (SEM) of the sorafenib loaded NLC revealed a spherical shape with a diameter <300 nm. In vitro biological studies demonstrated that sorafenib loaded into NLC had enhanced anti-tumor activity compared to that of free drug. This finding raises hope in terms of future drug delivery strategy of sorafenib loaded NLC, that can be useful for therapeutic application in HCC.

Effects in cigarette smoke stimulated bronchial epithelial cells of a corticosteroid entrapped into nanostructured lipid carriers

BackgroundNanomedicine studies have showed a great potential for drug delivery into the lung. In this manuscript nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) containing Fluticasone propionate (FP) were prepared and their biocompatibility and effects in a human bronchial epithelial cell line (16-HBE) stimulated with cigarette smoke extracts (CSE) were tested.ResultsBiocompatibility studies showed that the NLC did not induce cell necrosis or apoptosis. Moreover, it was confirmed that CSE increased intracellular ROS production and TLR4 expression in bronchial epithelial cells and that FP-loaded NLC were more effective than free drug in modulating these processes. Finally, the nanoparticles increased GSH levels improving cell protection against oxidative stress.ConclusionsThe present study shows that NLC may be considered a promising strategy to improve corticosteroid mediated effects in cellular models associated to corticosteroid resistance. The NLC containing FP can be considered good systems for dosage forms useful for increasing the effectiveness of fluticasone decreasing its side effects.

Nanoassemblies Based on Supramolecular Complexes of Nonionic Amphiphilic Cyclodextrin and Sorafenib as Effective Weapons to Kill Human HCC Cells.

Sorafenib (Sor), an effective chemiotherapeutic drug utilized against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), robustly interacts with nonionic amphiphilic cyclodextrin (aCD, SC6OH), forming, in aqueous solution, supramolecular complexes that behave as building blocks of highly water-dispersible colloidal nanoassemblies. SC6OH/Sor complex has been characterized by complementary spectroscopic techniques, such as UV-vis, steady-state fluorescence and anisotropy, resonance light scattering and (1)H NMR. The spectroscopic evidences and experiments carried out in the presence of an adamantane derivative, which competes with drug for CD cavity, agree with the entrapment of Sor in aCD, pointing out the role of the aCD cavity in the interaction between drug and amphiphile. Nanoassemblies based on SC6OH/Sor display size of ∼200 nm, negative zeta-potential (ζ = -11 mV), and both maximum loading capacity (LC ∼ 17%) and entrapment efficiency (EE ∼ 100%). Kinetic release profiles show a slower release of Sor from nanoassemblies with respect to the free drug. SC6OH/Sor nanoassemblies have very low hemolytic activity and high efficiency in vitro in decreasing cell growth and viability of HCC cell lines, such as HepG2, Hep3B, and PLC/PRF/5, opening promising chances to their in vivo applications.

Surfactant effect on the physicochemical characteristics of cationic solid lipid nanoparticles.

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) may be considered as a new approach for therapeutics for many diseases. In addition to drug delivery, their use as non-viral vectors for gene delivery can be obtained by including cationic lipids, which provide a positive surface potential that favors binding to the nucleic acids as DNA, siRNA, miRNA, etc. In fact, the addition of cationic surfactants is indispensable for obtaining nanoparticles with surface positive charge. In this study, three different cationic lipids (dioctadecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide, cetylpyridinium chloride) and Brij 76 as nonionic surfactant were employed to formulate Precirol ATO 5 based cSLN using pEGFP-LUC as model plasmid. The physicochemical properties of cSLN were influenced by both type and amount of surfactants. Thermal analyses of bulk cSLN showed endothermic peaks significantly different from the ones of the single pure components, hinting a complete entanglement of the lipid matrix with the surfactants and justifying the different behavior of the cSLN in the ability to interact with the plasmid DNA. Finally, the biocompatibility of cSLN was demonstrated by hemolytic assays. These results may give an insight into the choice of surfactants in order to obtain non-toxic and highly effective delivery systems for gene therapy.

Cationic Solid Lipid Nanoparticles as Non Viral Vectors for the Inhibition of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Growth by RNA Interference

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most important causes of cancer deaths worldwide. Gene therapy is a novel approach for treating HCC. A safe and efficient gene delivery method, using viral or non-viral vectors, is a crucial factor for developing a successful HCC gene therapy. Among non-viral vectors, cationic solid lipid nanoparticles (cSLN) have advantages such as biocompatibility and transfection efficiency. In this study, novel cSLN were prepared, characterized and complexed with a plasmid (shNUPR1) capable of inhibiting the expression of the NUPR1 gene, which is involved in HCC growth and chemoresistance. The particles resulted biocompatible, as confirmed by haemolysis and cytotoxicity assays, and was able to protect the shNUPR1 plasmid from degradation by DNase I. We also demonstrated, by carrying out transfection and immunofluorescence studies, that the particles efficiently delivered the shNUPR1 plasmid into HCC cells, causing the downregulation of NUPR1-regulated genes and NUPR1 protein expression. These results suggest that the cSLN obtained could be proposed for further in vivo studies as novel transfection vectors for HCC gene therapy, having shown excellent in vitro transfection efficiency and biocompatibility.