Prevention of chemotherapy-related bone loss with doxorubicin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles

Aim: Breast cancer and its metastases involve high mortality even with advances in chemotherapy. Solid lipid nanoparticles provide a platform for drug delivery, reducing side effects and treatment-induced bone loss. A solid nanoparticle containing doxorubicin was evaluated for its ability to prevent bone loss in a pre-clinical breast cancer model. Methods: We investigated the effects of SLNDox in an aggressive metastatic stage IV breast cancer model, which has some important features that are interesting for bone loss investigation. This study evaluates bone loss prevention potential from solid lipid nanoparticles containing doxorubicin breast cancer treatment, an evaluation of the attenuation of morphological changes in bone tissue caused by the treatment and the disease and an assessment of bone loss imaging using computed tomography and electron microscopy. Results: Chemotherapy-induced bone loss was also observed in tumor-free animals; a solid lipid nanoparticle containing doxorubicin prevented damage to the growth plate and to compact and cancellous bones in the femur of tumor-bearing and healthy animals. Conclusion: The association of solid lipid nanoparticles with chemotherapeutic drugs with proven efficacy promotes the prevention of serious consequences of chemotherapy, reducing tumor progression, increasing quality of life and improving prognosis and survival.