Nanoparticles are the focus of an increased interest in drug delivery systems for
cancer therapy.
Lipid-coated nanoparticles are inspired in structure and size by
low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) because
cancer cells have an increased need for
cholesterol to proliferate, and this has been exploited as a mechanism for delivering anticancer drugs to
cancer cells. Moreover, depending on
drug chemistry, encapsulating the
drug can be advantageous to avoid degradation of the
drug during circulation in vivo. Therefore, in this study, this design is used to fabricate
lipid-coated nanoparticles of the anticancer
drug falcarindiol, providing a potential new delivery system of
falcarindiol in order to stabilize its chemical structure against degradation and improve its uptake by
tumors.
Falcarindiol nanoparticles, with a
phospholipid and
cholesterol monolayer encapsulating the purified
drug core of the particle, were designed. The
lipid monolayer coating consists of
1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC),
cholesterol (Chol), and 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-
phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(
polyethylene glycol)-2000] (
DSPE PEG 2000) along with the fluorescent label DiI (molar ratios of 43:50:5:2). The nanoparticles are fabricated using the rapid injection method, which is a fast and simple technique to precipitate nanoparticles by good-
solvent for anti-
solvent exchange. It consists of a rapid injection of an
ethanol solution containing the nanoparticle components into an aqueous phase. The size of the fluorescent nanoparticles is measured using dynamic light scattering (DLS) at 74.1 ± 6.7 nm. The uptake of the nanoparticles is tested in human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and imaged using fluorescence and confocal microscopy. The uptake of the nanoparticles is observed in hMSCs, suggesting the potential for such a stable drug delivery system for
falcarindiol.