Anti-proliferative Activity of Silymarin-Encapsulated Polymeric Nanoparticles against Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma (in vitro study)

Abstract

Background / Aim; Human liver cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer deaths. Scientists from various parts of the world are working on developing new therapies for the liver cancer. However, to this day, death levels from liver cancer have not shown any signs of decreasing or even leveling off. Commercial therapies like anticancer drugs, chemotherapies and radiotherapies are known to have limited efficacy and numerous side effects. Moreover, they are unaffordable by a huge sector of the population. Since there is a lack in other efficient methods of treatment, therefore, natural products attracted attention of the researchers due to their anti-cancerous and safety properties. Silymarin is a natural flavonoligan substance, characterized with anti-oxidative and chemo protective properties against many cancers. Polymeric Nanoparticles demonstrated wide applications as an efficient and safe drug carrier, enhancing therapeutic efficiency of anti-cancerous therapies and minimizing their adverse effects. Therefore, in the current research we proposed a novel approach that involves encapsulating silymarin into chitosan nanoparticle as an efficient and highly specific drug delivery system that can target human liver cancerous cells without affecting normal cells. Methods; Preparation of chitosan nanoparticles (CsNPs) and chitosan encapsulated with silymarin nanocomposite (SilCsNPs). Characterization of the materials included particle size analysis, morphology, zeta-potential and FTIR to ensure binding properties and nanocomposite formation. Encapsulation efficiency of SilCsNPs nanocomposite was studied. All prepared nanomaterials were screened for their cytotoxic effect on Huh7 as an in vitro model of human liver cancer and examined for morphological changes under phase contrast inverted microscope. Paclitaxel was used as standard anti-tumor control to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the tested nanomaterials.