In vitro evaluation of doxorubicin-incorporated magnetic albumin nanospheres

Abstract

Magnetic albumin nanospheres that incorporate doxorubicin (M-DOX-BSA-NPs) were prepared previously by our research group to develop magnetically responsive drug carrier system. This nanocarrier was synthesized as a drug delivery system for targeted chemotherapy. In this work, cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded/unloaded or magnetic/non-magnetic nanoparticles and free DOX against PC-3 cells and A549 cells were determined with the MTT test and the results were compared with each other. DOX-loaded magnetic albumin nanospheres (M-DOX-BSA-NPs) were found more cytotoxic than other formulations. The quantitative data obtained from flow cytometry analysis further verified the higher targeting and killing ability of M-DOX-BSA-NPs than free DOX on both of the cancer cell lines. Additionally, the results of cell cycle analysis have showed that M-DOX-BSA-NPs affected G1 and G2 phases. Finally, cell images were obtained using spin-disk confocal microscopy, and cellular uptake of M-DOX-BSA-NPs was visualized. The findings of this study suggest that M-DOX-BSA-NPs represent a potential doxorubicin delivery system for targeted drug transport into prostate and lung cancer cells. In this study, we found that M-DOX-BSA-NPs provide many advantages as targeted drug delivery, enhanced drug killing ability and bioavailability based on cytotoxicity, flow cytometry, and confocal microscopy image results.