Antibacterial and anticancer activity of poly (ɛ-caprolactone)/doxorubicin/Costus arabicus L. root smoke composite nanofibers against lung cancer

Abstract

The combination of plant-derived agents with chemotherapy drugs could enhance the cytotoxicity of drugs in cancer cells and could improve the biocompatibility of drugs in normal cells. In the present study, the dichloromethane fraction of Costus arabicus L. root smoke (CALRS) and doxorubicin (DOX) have been simultaneously incorporated into the poly (ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers. The synthesized nanofibrous samples were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The antibacterial, antiparasitic, and anticancer activities of synthesized nanofibers were investigated. The pharmacokinetic models such as Korsmeyer-Peppas, Higuchi, and zero-order were applied to analyze the DOX release mechanism from nanofibers. The continuous release of DOX from PCL/CALRS 5%/DOX 10% nanofibers was occurred during 7 days and the Korsemeyer-Peppas model could describe the DOX release data. The results indicated that the DOX and CALRS dual agents-loaded nanofibers indicated the highest antibacterial activity on both gram-negative Escherichia coli and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and highest anticancer activity on A549 lung cancer cells death compared to pure DOX, CALRS, and DOX loaded-PCL nanofibers.