Characterization of anticancer hypocrellin A encapsulated with silica nanoparticles

Abstract

Hypocrellins, natural photosensitizers including hypocrellin A (HA) and hypocrellin B (HB), have been used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine to cure various skin diseases. Hypocrellins have excellent antiviral activity, which can inhibit the growth of human immunodeficiency virus. They also exhibit significant light-induced antitumor property. In this article, thermal analysis technologies (e.g., differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetry) are employed to characterize whether the photosensitive hypocrellin A could be encapsulated with silica nanoparticle (SN) material or not, and evaluate the stability of inclusion complex. The results show that the inclusion complex exhibits improved performance in both stability and hydrophilicity than natural hypocrellin A. Fluorescence spectrophotometry studies have also been performed to verify the thermal analysis results. The results suggest that the thermal analysis technology could be used as an effective and rapid tool to characterize the encapsulation properties of the novel anticancer HA–SN complex.