Enhanced anticancer effect of Brucea javanica oil by solidified self-microemulsifying drug delivery system

Abstract

Brucea javanica oil (BJO) is a traditional herbal medicine in China for the effective treatment of various diseases due to multifaceted activities. As the most common formulation, BJO emulsion (BJOE) has been employed to treat carcinomas in clinical practice for many years. Herein, we fabricated a solid self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (S-SMEDDS) of BJO and assessed its antitumor effects on cancer cell lines A549 and DU145. The shape of BJO-loaded S-SMEDDS (BJOS) was approximately spherical and the nanosuspension was stable. Since the proliferation of A549 and DU145 cells was significantly inhibited by BJOS dose-dependently compared to that by BJOE, BJOS had enhanced anticancer effects. Given a lower IC50, DU145 cells were more sensitive to BJOS than A549 cells. Besides, flow cytometry showed that A549 and DU145 cell cycles were arrested in the G0/G1 phase, and the transwell assay demonstrated that their invasion ability decreased apparently after 24 h of exposure to BJOS. In conclusion, BJOS was a promising formulation for improving the treatment of lung cancer and prostate cancer.