Development and Characterization of Folic Acid-Conjugated Amodiaquine-Loaded Nanoparticles-Efficacy in Cancer Treatment

• Published in: Pharmaceutics Vol. 15; no. 3; p. 1001
• Main Authors: Parvathaneni, Vineela, Shukla, Snehal K, Gupta, Vivek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.03.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: 3D spheroid studies; Acids; amodiaquine; Breast cancer; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Cell cycle; Chemical properties; Chemotherapy; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; FDA approval; Folic acid; Health aspects; Ligands; Lipids; Lung cancer; Materials; Medical research; Nanoparticles; Polyethylene glycol; Polyvinyl alcohol; targeted delivery; Tumors; Vehicles; Vitamin B; United States; United States > US; amodiaquine; nanoparticles; nano-repurposing; 3D spheroid studies; targeted delivery; cancer; repurposing; folic acid
• ISSN: 1999-4923; 1999-4923
• DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15031001

The objective of this study was to construct amodiaquine-loaded, folic acid-conjugated polymeric nanoparticles (FA-AQ NPs) to treat cancer that could be scaled to commercial production. In this study, folic acid (FA) was conjugated with a PLGA polymer followed by the formulation of drug-loaded NPs. The results of the conjugation efficiency confirmed the conjugation of FA with PLGA. The developed folic acid-conjugated nanoparticles demonstrated uniform particle size distributions and had visible spherical shapes under transmission electron microscopy. The cellular uptake results suggested that FA modification could enhance the cellular internalization of nanoparticulate systems in non-small cell lung cancer, cervical, and breast cancer cell types. Furthermore, cytotoxicity studies showed the superior efficacy of FA-AQ NPs in different cancer cells such as MDAMB-231 and HeLA. FA-AQ NPs had better anti-tumor abilities demonstrated via 3D spheroid cell culture studies. Therefore, FA-AQ NPs could be a promising drug delivery system for cancer therapy.