Nano-Sized MIL-100(Fe) as a Carrier Material for Nitidine Chloride Reduces Toxicity and Enhances Anticancer Effects In Vitro

Abstract

Nitidine chloride (NC) is a natural alkaloid and has strong antitumor activity. However, its clinical application is limited due to the observed non-specific toxicity and low bioavailability. In this study, we synthesized nanoscale metal–organic frameworks MIL-100(Fe), which was used as a nanocarrier to deliver NC. MIL-100(Fe) was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). NC was encapsulated in MIL-100(Fe) with a high loading capacity of 33.43 wt%. It shown that NC has progressive releasing behavior with 68% in 4 days under phosphate-buffered saline. The in vitro cytotoxicity of free NC and NC@MIL-100(Fe) were investigated by the MTT assay using the healthy liver cell line (LO2) and a liver cancer cell line (HepG2). Interestingly, NC@MIL-100(Fe) exhibited low toxicity on LO2 cells and high cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells compared to free NC.