1st International Congress on Solutions in Science, İzmir, Turkey, 11 - 13 September 2023, pp.15
Cancer is the second cause of death worldwide. Traditional cancer treatments have side effects and limitations such as the distribution of the chemotherapeutic agent throughout the body, inability to reach the therapeutic level in the desired area, and effectiveness on healthy cells. Drug carriers are a novel approach to solve these problems. In this study, we aimed to examine the cytotoxicity of nano-polymeric drug carriers prepared using chitosan-hyaluronic acid biopolymer combination and loaded with doxorubicin (Dox), an anticancer agent used in solid tumors, in two different cell lines and to compare with free drug cytotoxicity. Chitosan-hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (CS-HA NPs) were formed by gelation method and Dox was loaded into the nanoparticles via adsorption. Nanoparticle characterization studies were carried out via SEM, FTIR and hydrodynamic size analyses. In vitro drug studies of Dox-loaded CS-HA NPs and of free drugs were performed in acidic (5.5) and physiological (7.4) pHs. In vitro cell cytotoxicity tests were performed for CS-HA NPs, Dox-loaded CS-HA NPs and free drugs for ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3 and lung cancer cell line A549-luc-C8. The optimum pH and drug quantity for drug adsorption were selected as 8 and 1.5 mg/mL with 89.8% of adsorption yield respectively. According to in vitro drug release studies, while free drug was released 37.3% at pH 7.4 and 74% at pH 5.5 after 1.5 hours, Dox-loaded CS-HA NPs released the drug 44.6% at pH 7.4 and 61.5% at pH 5.5 after 6 hours. According to cytotoxicity tests, IC50 values show that the drug delivery system was 1.86 times cytotoxic for A549-luc-C8 cells compared to free drug and 153.8 times cytotoxic than free drug for SKOV-3 cells for 72 hours. As a result, because Dox-loaded CS-HA NPs had a controlled drug release profile and more cytotoxic activity than free drugs, they could have a potential for the targeted treatment of ovarian cancer.