Novel Lanthanum-Based Fluorescent Drug-Loaded Microspheres for Tracing and Inhibition of the HepG2 Cells Line

Abstract

Lanthanide luminescent materials have rapidly emerged as potential candidates in the fields of drug delivery and bioimaging. In this study a spherical composite material theory with uniform particle size, good biocompatibility, fluorescence emission performance and an efficient targeted drug delivery system was proposed. To achieve this, a facile ultrasonic atomization approach to synthesize sodium alginate-lanthanum (SA-La) cross-linked microspheres at room temperature was developed, and then they were loaded with doxorubicin (DOX), yielding DOX@SA-La for targeted liver cancer cell treatment. Fluorescence studies indicated that the SA-La microspheres exhibited excellent fluorescence properties with intense blue fluorescence emitted. Moreover, the ability of drug release in-vitro of the SA-La and Calcium alginate (SA-Ca) microspheres were proved by UV-visible spectrophotometry, and the drug release values of these two drug carriers were considerable. In addition, cytotoxicity tests via the CCK-8 assay revealed that the DOX@SA-La delivery system considerably inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma cells growth. Conclusively, the SA-La fluorescent microsphere drug carriers enables real-time anti-cancer efficacy observations and analyses, having promise as a potent therapeutic and diagnostic tool for liver cancer treatments and drug tracing in the tumors.