Effect of gold nanoparticle on properties of liposomal hydroxyurea: in vitro study

Aim and Functional nanoparticles have offered many hopes in drug delivery. These structures not only increase the efficiency of nanoparticle-associated drugs, but also attenuate the side effects of these therapeutic agents. In this study various nanoparticulate formulations of Hydroxyurea (HU) were constructed. reverse phase evaporation technique was used to obtain the Hydroxyurea-loaded liposome. Aspartic acid containing-Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were manufactured using reduction of chloroauric acid salt. DNA extracted from human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 was then conjugated to GNPs (nanoconjugate). Nanoconjugate was subsequently mixed with Hydroxyurea-loaded liposome to give nanoconjugate complex. Obtained nanoparticulate formulations were characterized with dynamic light scattering (DLS) and UV-Vis spectrophotometery methods. Spectrophotometery was also used to determine the drug loading efficiency. MTT assay and MCF-7 cell line was contributed to provide the information about cytotoxicity effects of various formulations. Drug loading efficiency was found to be 70%. While nanoconjugate complex gave the largest size with 502 nm, size of produced GNPs was minimum with 29 nm. Although compared to free drug, efficiency was significantly enhanced when HU was coupled to nanoparticulate formulations, this effect was more evident at lower concentrations of drug (>20 µM). In this regard cytotoxicity effect of nanocomplex was prominent. Cytotoxicity effects of HU-loaded liposome and nanoconjugate complex at lowest concentration (5 µM) were estimated to be 70 and 81 percent respectively. More cytotoxicity observed with nanoconjugate complex could be attributed to an increase in the HU transfer to cell because of GNPs. Free HU showed cytotoxicity effects equal to 32 and 88 percent at 5 and 2500 µM, respectively. Results of the study showing that liposome nanoparticle could be considered as a suitable carrier for HU. It has demonstrated that GNPs exert essential role in which at the present of this nanoparticle as nanocomplex structure, cytotoxicity effects were significantly increased. According to these observations, use of GNPs as liposomal nanocomplex for various drug formulations could be considered. Because of significance increase in the cytotoxicity effects of nanoconjugate complex produced in this study, it is recommended to initiate the in vivo studies.