Albumin nanoparticles for use in cancer drug delivery

The side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs on healthy organs, as well as cancer cells, are one of the main reasons for the high mortality rates of cancer patients. Controlled drug release studies with biocompatible nanoparticles are becoming increasingly important to prevent drawbacks of traditional chemotherapy treatment. In this study, it is aimed to entrap doxorubicin (DOX) into albumin nanoparticles with a high loading capacity to obtain a long-term release profile. Albumin nanoparticles were prepared through the desolvation method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The prepared particles were spherical in shape, having a size between 25 and 100 nm, and the entrapment efficiency was about 87%. The in vitro release profile of DOX-loaded albumin nanoparticles exhibited controlled release of the drug up to 124 days (90.37%). The results showed that DOX was efficiently entrapped into the prepared albumin nanoparticles and the drug was released from the carrier in a controlled manner. Assessment of the cytotoxicity of the obtained nanoparticles on human A549 (human lung adenocarcinoma) and HeLa (human cervix adenocarcinoma) cell lines was carried out through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The cancer cell line cytotoxicity results, consistent with the controlled release profile, evidently showed that DOX-loaded albumin nanoparticles can be a good option in the treatment of cancer.