Enhancing the antitumor activity of berberine hydrochloride by solid lipid nanoparticle encapsulation

Berberine hydrochloride (BH) is an isoquinolin alkaloid with promising anticancer efficacies. Nevertheless, further development and application of this compound had been hampered by its poor aqueous solubility, low gastrointestinal absorption, and rapid metabolism in the body. In this study, a solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN)-based system was developed for efficient incorporation and persistent release of BH. The drug-loading SLNs (BH-loaded SLNs) were stable, with a mean particle size of 81.42 ± 8.48 nm and zeta potential of -28.67 ± 0.71 mV. BH-loaded SLNs showed desirable drug entrapment efficiency and drug-loaded, and the release of BH from SLNs was significantly slower than free BH. Importantly, our in vitro study indicated that BH-loaded SLNs more significantly inhibited cell proliferation on MCF-7, HepG 2, and A549 cancer cells. Meanwhile, clone formation, cellular uptake, cell cycle arrest, and cell apoptosis studies also demonstrated that BH-loaded SLNs enhanced the antitumor efficacies of BH on MCF-7 cancer cells. Taken together, our results suggest that this SLN formulation may serve as a novel, simple, and efficient system for the delivery of BH.