Human Serum Albumin Nanoparticles for Use in Cancer Drug Delivery: Process Optimization and In Vitro Characterization

Abstract

Human serum albumin nanoparticles (HSA-NPs) are widely-used drug delivery systems with applications in various diseases, like cancer. For intravenous administration of HSA-NPs, the particle size, surface charge, drug loading and in vitro release kinetics are important parameters for consideration. This study focuses on the development of stable HSA-NPs containing the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) via the emulsion-solvent evaporation method using a high-pressure homogenizer. The key parameters for the preparation of PTX-HSA-NPs are: the starting concentrations of HSA, PTX and the organic solvent, including the homogenization pressure and its number cycles, were optimized. Results indicate a size of 143.4 ± 0.7 nm and 170.2 ± 1.4 nm with a surface charge of −5.6 ± 0.8 mV and −17.4 ± 0.5 mV for HSA-NPs and PTX-HSA-NPs (0.5 mg/mL of PTX), respectively. The yield of the PTX-HSA-NPs was ~93% with an encapsulation efficiency of ~82%. To investigate the safety and effectiveness of the PTX-HSA-NPs, an in vitro drug release and cytotoxicity assay was performed on human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The PTX-HSA-NPs showed dose-dependent toxicity on cells of 52%, 39.3% and 22.6% with increasing concentrations of PTX at 8, 20.2 and 31.4 μg/mL, respectively. In summary, all parameters involved in HSA-NPs’ preparation, its anticancer efficacy and scale-up are outlined in this research article.

Cholesterol-Modified Amino-Pullulan Nanoparticles as a Drug Carrier: Comparative Study of Cholesterol-Modified Carboxyethyl Pullulan and Pullulan Nanoparticles

“…Recently, a hot topic is drugs transmitted to the cancer area with high efficiency to kill cancer cells [1,2,3]. …”

Development of an Ionic Liquid Based Method for the Preparation of Albumin Nanoparticles

“…Among all possible different nanocarriers, albumin based nanoparticles have been extensively studied due to their unique properties such as biodegradability, lack of toxicity and antigenicity, and easy preparation . Also, high drug binding capacity of albumin for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs has inspired scientists to prepare drug nanocarriers from albumin protein ,. In addition, the albumin nanoparticle is an attractive candidate for the site‐specific delivery of drugs in the body.…”

Preparation of human serum albumin nanoparticles using a chemometric technique

“…Nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab TM ) technology is the commercial process used to encapsulate lipophilic drugs into HSA nanoparticles [19,20]. In this method, lipophilic drugs are dissolved in an organic solvent and mixed with an aqueous solution of HSA.…”

“…In this method, lipophilic drugs are dissolved in an organic solvent and mixed with an aqueous solution of HSA. This emulsion is then passed through a HPH to reduce the particle size to 100-200 nm [20,21].…”