Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Hydroquinone-Based for the Treatment of Melanoma: Efficacy and Safety Studies

Abstract

Classical melanoma therapy has several side effects that are responsible for a decrease in the final therapeutic efficacy. It is possible that the drug is degraded before reaching the target site and is metabolized by the body itself, resulting in repeated doses being administered throughout the day and a decrease in patient compliance. Drug delivery systems avoid degradation of the active ingredient, improve release kinetics, prevent the drug from being metabolized before reaching the site of action, and improve the safety and efficacy profiles of adjuvant cancer therapy. The solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) based on hydroquinone esterified with stearic acid realized in this work represent a chemotherapeutic drug delivery system that is useful in the treatment of melanoma. The starting materials were characterized by FT-IR and 1H-NMR, while the SLNs were characterized by dynamic light scattering. In efficacy studies, their ability to influence anchorage-dependent cell proliferation was tested on COLO-38 human melanoma cells. Furthermore, the expression levels of proteins belonging to apoptotic mechanisms were determined by analyzing the role of SLNs in modulating the expression of p53 and p21WAF1/Cip1. Safety tests were conducted to determine not only the pro-sensitizing potential but also the cytotoxicity of SLNs, and studies were conducted to assess the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of these drug delivery.

Synthesis and Characterization of a Biopolymer Pectin/Ethanolic Extract from Olive Mill Wastewater: In Vitro Safety and Efficacy Tests on Skin Wound Healing

“…The evaluation of the sensitizing effect of our compounds was made on a THP-1 cell line and performed by h-CLAT. The h-CLAT was completed as previously shown by Trombino et al [24]. The results obtained, treating THP-1 cells with different serial dilutions of pectin and PELAVF1S, are reported in (Table 6) and confirmed that PELAVF1S shows no sensitization effects.…”

“…h-CLAT aims to evaluate whether substances or mixtures cause activation of the immune system, resulting in skin sensitization according to the method described by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 442E [24] and in the EURL 158 protocol ECVAM (European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing). The test was performed on THP-1 cells, evaluating the modulation of the expression of two costimulatory molecules, CD54 and CD86, using nickel sulfate (NiSO 4 ) as a positive control.…”

ROS-Responsive PLGA-NPs for Co-Delivery of DTX and DHA for Colon Cancer Treatment

“…The course of the reaction was followed by thin-layer chromatography of a chloroform/hexane eluent mixture (5:5). The resulting product (ester) was purified by filtration and washing in hot methanol to remove the residual dicyclohexylurea (DCU), i.e., the condensation reaction by-product of DCC with amines and alcohols, formed and the remaining solvent residue [52,53].…”