Sericin-Montmorillonite Composite Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery System in Human Liver Cancer: Development, Drug Release, Cellular Uptake and Cytotoxicity

Abstract

Composite nanoparticles obtained increasing interest because of their scientific and curative importance. Herein, sericin-montmorillonite composite nanoparticles (Ser-Mt NPs) were synthesized by taking advantage of the biodegradability and functional surface diversity of sericin, and biocompatibility and high adsorption properties of montmorillonite as natural resources. The composite nanoparticle was obtained by the desolvation technique and crosslinked with glutaraldehyde for the first time. Doxorubicin was selected to be used as a model anticancer drug to perform the loading and release studies. After chemical and morphological characterization studies with various methods such as Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy and Electron Microscopy, the cytotoxic effect of Ser-Mt composite NPs were quanlitatively and quantitatively evaluated on HepG2 (human liver cancer cell line) cells. The results obviously exhibited that high drug loading capacity, sustainable drug release property and its effect on cancer cells made Ser-Mt composite NPs as a good candidate as a drug delivery system on cancer therapy with monodisperse, small average size and good polydispersity index.