Antiproliferative Ability and Fluorescence Tracking of α-Linolenic Acid-Loaded Microemulsion as Label-Free Delivery Carriers in MDA-MB-231 Cells

Abstract

In this work, the effects of α-linolenic acid (ALA) loaded in oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) microemulsions on cell viability, lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) viability, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were examined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), an LDH assay kit, and a fluorescence microscope, respectively. The CCK-8 assay demonstrated that ALA inhibited MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Further, the results of LDH activity and ROS levels revealed that ALA-induced cancer cell damage was closely related to oxidative stress. Under the irradiation of ultraviolet light, the microemulsion without any added fluorescent dye would emit bright blue fluorescence, and the fluorescent images of the cells treated with ALA-loaded O/W and W/O/W microemulsions at different incubation times were taken, which exhibited long-term photostability and biocompatibility. In addition, the fluorescence mechanism of the microemulsion was explained by immobilizing surfactant molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties at the water–oil interface through the microemulsion with a self-assembled structure. These findings showed the potential application of O/W and W/O/W microemulsions as the label-free delivery carriers in long-term imaging of living cells and real-time release monitoring of nutrients.

Identification of Six Flavonoids as Novel Cellular Antioxidants and Their Structure-Activity Relationship

“…The cytotoxicity and antiproliferative activity assays were performed by using the CCK-8 assay kit [ 16 ]. Briefly, HepG2 cells were cultured at a density of 4 × 10 4 cells/well or 2.5 × 10 4 cells/well in a 96-well microplate with growth medium.…”

In Vitro Evaluation of a Fluorescent Microemulsion as an Oral Delivery Carrier and its Potential Application in Tracking Bioactive Compounds Label-Free

“…Furthermore, the fluorescence of the microemulsion had not been quenched by the complex digestion environment, and fluorescence intensity remained strong. In our recent report, MDA-MB-231human cancer cells were cultured with a fluorescent microemulsion . The results demonstrated that the fluorescence intensity of the ALA-loaded fluorescent microemulsion gradually became stronger with increasing incubation time.…”

Antibacterial Activity of Polyvinyl Alcohol/WO3 Films Assisted by Near-Infrared Light and Its Application in Freshness Monitoring

“…Human colon cancer cells HT-29 were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of WO 3 using the standard CCK-8 test method. 36 The cells were cultured (37 °C, 5% CO 2 ) in DMEM with FBS in a 96-well plate (∼5000 cells/well) for 24 h and added with WO 3 at final concentrations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 μg/mL, respectively (culture without WO 3 as control). After incubated for 24 h, the cells were washed twice with PBS.…”