Bringing pathology to nanomedicine: a comparison of in vivo toxicity of polymeric nanoparticle carriers with and without chitosan coating

Abstract

Over the last years, there has been an increasing number of proposals for the use of nanomaterials in medicine. The safety of novel technologies must be verified, prior to their clinical application. Pathology has much to contribute towards this end. In this study, we compared the in vivo toxicity effects of poly- (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles with and without chitosan shell. Both nanoparticle types were loaded with curcumin. The nanoparticles were assessed in vitro for potential cytotoxicity with cell viability studies. For the in vivo test, 36 adult Wistar rats were used, four of which were the control group. The remaining 32 were divided into 2 groups, each of which was administered differentially coated drug carriers: (A) nanoparticles without chitosan coating and (B) nanoparticles with chitosan coating. For both groups, the subcutaneous route was used for administration. Each group was further divided into 2 sub-groups of 8 animals each. The animals of the first sub-groups were sacrificed 24 h after the injection and those of the second on the 7th day. The control group was also divided into 2 subgroups of 2 animals each. At the appointed post-administrative date, the rats were sacrificed, and specimens from the brain, liver, kidneys, heart, stomach, lungs, and from the skin at the injection site were collected and studied histopathologically. The evaluation of both in vitro and in vivo testing shows that nanoparticles with chitosan have significantly less, if any, toxic effects compared to those without chitosan.

Development and in vitro evaluation of ursolic acid-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles in cholangiocarcinoma

“…The results showed that the viability of CCA cells treated with 1 mg mL −1 of blank PLGA NPs was above 88% at both incubation times, indicating biocompatibility, as viability above 80% compared to control is considered acceptable. 50 This could potentially be attributed to the inability to compare UA content exclusively in serum-free media, i.e., UA dissolved in 0.25% DMSO, as well as the requirement for UA in PLGA-NPs to diffuse gradually from the NPs. These ndings revealed that UA-PLGA NPs exhibited anti-cancer properties, a slow-released characteristic and an increase in the solubility of UA in water.…”