Affiliations 

  • 1 Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 3 Department of Medical Sciences, School of Healthcare and Medical Sciences, Sunway University, Selangor Darul Ehsan 47500, Malaysia
  • 4 Bio-Inspired Chemical Engineering Laboratory, Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
Int J Nanomedicine, 2020;15:5417-5432.
PMID: 32801697 DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S250047

Abstract

Introduction: Green-based materials have been increasingly studied to circumvent off-target cytotoxicity and other side-effects from conventional chemotherapy.

Materials and Methods: Here, cellulose fibers (CF) were isolated from rice straw (RS) waste by using an eco-friendly alkali treatment. The CF network served as an anticancer drug carrier for 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The physicochemical and thermal properties of CF, pure 5-FU drug, and the 5-FU-loaded CF (CF/5-FU) samples were evaluated. The samples were assessed for in vitro cytotoxicity assays using human colorectal cancer (HCT116) and normal (CCD112) cell lines, along with human nasopharyngeal cancer (HONE-1) and normal (NP 460) cell lines after 72-hours of treatment.

Results: XRD and FTIR revealed the successful alkali treatment of RS to isolate CF with high purity and crystallinity. Compared to RS, the alkali-treated CF showed an almost fourfold increase in surface area and zeta potential of up to -33.61 mV. SEM images illustrated the CF network with a rod-shaped structure and comprised of ordered aggregated cellulose. TGA results proved that the thermal stability of 5-FU increased within the drug carrier. Based on UV-spectroscopy measurements for 5-FU loading into CF, drug loading encapsulation efficiency was estimated to be 83 ±0.8%. The release media at pH 7.4 and pH 1.2 showed a maximum drug release of 79% and 46%, respectively, over 24 hours. In cytotoxicity assays, CF showed almost no damage, while pure 5-FU killed most of the both normal and cancer cells. Impressively, the drug-loaded sample of CF/5-FU at a 250 µg/mL concentration demonstrated a 58% inhibition against colorectal cancer cells, but only a 23% inhibition against normal colorectal cells. Further, a 62.50 µg/mL concentration of CF/5FU eliminated 71% and 39% of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and normal nasopharyngeal cells, respectively.

Discussion: This study, therefore, showed the strong potential anticancer activity of the novel CF/5-FU formulations, warranting their further investigation.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.