The usage of natural products in pharmaceuticals has steadily seen improvements over the last decade, and this study focuses on the utilization of palm oil in formulating liposomal doxorubicin (Dox). The liposomal form of Dox generally minimizes toxicity and enhances target delivery actions. Taking into account the antiproliferative and antioxidant properties of palm oil, the aim of this study is to design and characterize a new liposomal Dox by replacing phosphatidylcholine with 5% and 10% palm oil content. Liposomes were formed using the freeze_thaw method, and Dox was loaded through pH gradient technique and characterized through in vitro and ex vivo terms. Based on TEM images, large lamellar vesicles (LUV) were formed, with sizes of 438 and 453 nm, having polydispersity index of 0.21 ± 0.8 and 0.22 ± 1.3 and zeta potentials of about -31 and -32 mV, respectively. In both formulations, the entrapment efficiency was about 99%, and whole Dox was released through 96 hours in PBS (pH = 7.4) at 37°C. Comparing cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of LUV with Caelyx(R) on MCF7 and MDA-MBA 231 breast cancer cell lines indicated suitable uptake and lower IC50 of the prepared liposomes.
Multifunctional nanocarriers harbouring specific targeting moieties and with pH-responsive properties offer great potential for targeted cancer therapy. Several synthetic drug carriers have been studied extensively as drug delivery systems but not much information is available on the application of virus-like nanoparticles (VLNPs) as multifunctional nanocarriers. Here, we describe the development of pH-responsive VLNPs, based on truncated hepatitis B virus core antigen (tHBcAg), displaying folic acid (FA) for controlled drug delivery. FA was conjugated to a pentadecapeptide containing nanoglue bound on tHBcAg nanoparticles to increase the specificity and efficacy of the drug delivery system. The tHBcAg nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) demonstrated a sustained drug release profile in vitro under tumour tissue conditions in a controlled manner and improved the uptake of DOX in colorectal cancer cells, leading to enhanced antitumour effects. This study demonstrated that DOX-PAA can be packaged into VLNPs without any modification of the DOX molecules, preserving the pharmacological activity of the loaded DOX. The nanoglue can easily be used to display a tumour-targeting molecule on the exterior surface of VLNPs and can bypass the laborious and time-consuming genetic engineering approaches.