Cytotoxicity of paclitaxel loaded and surface coated n-vinylcaprolactam nanoparticles on oestrogen negative breast cancer cells (MDA231) / Muhammad Zainuruladli Ismail

Cancer refers to diseases that are characterized by uncontrolled division of cells within the body. Amongst the 200 types of cancers which have been identified, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Over the past decades, paclitaxel represent one of the most important anticancer agents in chemotherapy. Cancer resistance and the lack of selectivity in its action have become major problem to the therapeutic effect of paclitaxel. Thus, novel formulation of drugs is important to improve the selectivity of the drugs action againsts cancer cells. Paclitaxel exerts many side effects too. This study was aimed to improve the cytotoxic effect of conventional paclitaxel. For this purpose, this study also compared the cytotoxic effect of paclitaxel with newly formulated paclitaxel-n­ vinylcaprolactam. The newly formulated paclitaxel-n-vinylcaprolactam has unique characteristics of thermosensitive and lower critical solution temperature. The antitumour effects of both paclitaxel and paclitaxel-n-vinylcaprolactam were measured by plating MDA 231 onto 96 wells plates and maintained in RPMI 1640 (media). The treatment was done after weighing and dissolving compound in DMSO. After that, SRB assay was carried out to measure the viability of cells in each well plate. For the SRB method, cancer cells were fixed with trichloroacetic acid reagents and stained with SRB dye. The Magellan software was used to read the intensity if dye in each well and dose response curve was plotted in order to determine each ICso value ( concentration value that inhibit 50% of cell growth). Result was analyzed by comparing potency of both formulations. The ICso of paclitaxel was about 6 times more than paclitaxel-n-vinylcaprolactam. The paclitaxel alone is more potent compared to paclitaxel-n-vinylcaprolactam. Further studies should be conducted to improve the cytotoxic effect of this newly formulated drug.