Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology (Dec 2019)

Nano-erythrocyte membrane-chaperoned 5-fluorouracil liposomes as biomimetic delivery platforms to target hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines

  • Saeed A. AlQahtani,
  • Gamaleldin I. Harisa,
  • Mohamed M. Badran,
  • Khalid M. AlGhamdi,
  • Ashok Kumar,
  • Mounir M. Salem-Bekhit,
  • Sheikh F. Ahmad,
  • Fars K. Alanazi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/21691401.2019.1577887
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 47, no. 1
pp. 989 – 996

Abstract

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Nano-erythrocyte coating has been developed as an interesting biomimetic platform to provide hybrid nano-carriers with innate functions to target liver cancer. This goal was achieved by coating nano-erythrocyte membranes (NEMs) onto 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-loaded liposomes (LPs) to produce NEM-5-FU-LPs. This framework is used to promote the escape of 5-FU-LPs from degradation during systemic circulation. NEMs were obtained by hypotonic lysis of erythrocytes to produce ghost erythrocytes (GEs) followed by extrusion through polycarbonate membranes. Chimeric NEM-5-FU-LPs were fabricated via the fusion of NEMs and artificial LPs. The resultant chaperoned LPs were characterized based on particle size, morphology, entrapment efficiency (EE %), stability, protein content and phosphatidylserine exposure and their in vitro release profiles and cytotoxic efficacy were also determined. The present results revealed that 5-FU-LPs, NEM-5-FU and NEM-5-FU-LPs exhibited nanosize, spherical shapes and unimodal size distributions <0.3. In addition, the vesicles presented a zeta potential with EE% of 24.6–30.7% and an appropriate stability for 3 weeks. NEM-5-FU-LPs retained the erythrocyte membrane proteins as confirmed by PAGE and displayed a sustained release profile up to 48 h when compared to NEM-5-FU and the 5-FU solution. Moreover, hybrid NEM-5-FU-LPs induced a late cytotoxic effect after 48 h compared to the other formulations. Thus, mantling of 5-FU-LPs by NEMs could enhance vesicle controllability and their targetability to liver cancer cells.

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