Preparation and preliminary evaluation of alginate crosslinked microcapsules as potential drug delivery system (DDS) for human lung cancer therapy

Abstract

Human lung cancer is the main cancer cause of death in men and the third cancer cause in women. As it is well-known, current antitumor treatments involve chemotherapy which mostly entails aggressive side effects. This study describes a drug delivery targeted strategy based in bioconjugated polymeric microcapsules with a size of around 30 μm. Alginate microcapsules, produced using a fan-jet nozzle, are used due to its biodegradability and biocompatibility and will be tested in vitro. Firstly, microparticles are prepared by ionic gelation of an alginate core sprayed on a barium chloride solution. Afterwards, epidermal growth factor is attached onto the surface of these microcapsules to specifically target non-small lung cancer cells (NSCLC). This bioconjugation is performed together with an anticancer agent, cisplatin. The in vitro studies of cytotoxicity has been tested with H460 lung cancer cell line and with controls on systems loaded with free drugs. In vitro validation tests were carried out in Petri plates and the cells viability were checked by MTT assay. These experiments showed that drug delivery treatment allows a faster mortality in H460 lung cancer cell plates. To sum up, this study reports the development of an advanced drug delivery system that improves the specificity issue on drug delivery in addition and in vitro confirmation in cell mediums containing NSCLC.