Mannosylated lipid nano-emulsions loaded with lycorine-oleic acid ionic complex for tumor cell-specific delivery

This study was to prepare a mannosylated lycorine lipid nano-emulsion formulation (M-LYC-OA-LNEs) for the aim of achieving tumor targeting delivery of lycorine (LYC) . The low lipophilicity of LYC made it hard to be dispersed into lipid nano-emulsions (LNEs). In order to increase its lipophilicity, lycorine-oleic acid ionic complex (LYC-OA) was made. M-LYC-OA-LNEs and uncoated lycorine-oleic acid loaded lipid nano-emulsions (LYC-OA-LNEs) were prepared by solvent injection method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), particle size, polydispersity index, zeta-potential and entrapment efficiency analysis. The in vitro cellular uptake and growth inhibition activity studies were performed on A549 cell lines. The entrapment efficiency of M-LYC-OA-LNEs was 82.7 ± 1.6 %. The cellular uptake study showed that coated LNEs were preferably taken up by A549 cells than uncoated LNEs. The effective test by MTT assay showed better growth inhibition activity of M-LYC-OA-LNEs on A549 cell lines when compared with LYC-OA-LNEs and blank LNEs. These results demonstrated that M-LYC-OA-LNEs could be a promising formulation for tumor targeting delivery of LYC with the potential of being applied in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.