Hydrophobic lapatinib encapsulated dextran-chitosan nanoparticles using a toxic solvent free method: fabrication,...

Dextran sulfate-chitosan (DS-CS) nanoparticles, which possesses properties such as nontoxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability have been employed as drug carriers in cancer therapy. In this study, DS-CS nanoparticles were synthesized and their sizes were controlled by a modification of the divalent cations cross-linkers (Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺ or Mg²⁺). Based on the optimized processing parameters, lapatinib encapsulated nanoparticles were developed and characterized by Dynamics Light Scattering (DLS) measurements, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Calcium chloride (CaCl₂) facilitated the formation of bare (100.3±0.80nm) and drug-loaded nanoparticles (134.3±1.3nm) with narrow size distributions being the best cross-linker. The surface potential of drug-loaded nanoparticles was -16.8±0.47mV and its entrapment and loading efficiency were 76.74±1.73% and 47.36±1.27%, respectively. Cellular internalization of nanoparticles was observed by fluorescence microscopy and MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to determine cytotoxicity of bare and drug-loaded nanoparticles in comparison to the free drug lapatinib. The MTT assay showed that drug-loaded nanoparticles had comparable anticancer activity to free drug within a duration of 48h. The aforementioned results showed that the DS-CS nanoparticles were able to entrap, protect and release the hydrophobic drug, lapatinib in a controlled pattern and could further serve as a suitable drug carrier for cancer therapy.