Page 53 - _NIPER-G Annual Report 2019-201

Research Area -3

Niclosamide encapsulated polymeric nanocarriers for targeted cancer therapy
(collaboration with IIT Bombay)
Localized cancer rates are on an upsurge, severely affecting mankind across the globe. Timely
diagnosis and adopting appropriate treatment strategies could improve the quality of life
significantly reducing the mortality and morbidity rates. Recently, nanotherapeutics has
precipitously shown increased efficacy for controlling abnormal tissue growth in certain sites
in the body, among which ligand functionalized nanoparticles (NP) have caught much attention
for improved survival statistics via active targeting. Our focus was to repurpose the
antihelminthic drug, niclosamide (NIC), which could aid in inhibiting the abnormal growth of
cells restricted to a specific region. The work here presents a one-pot synthesis of niclosamide
encapsulated, hyaluronic acid functionalized core–shell nanocarriers [(NIC-PLGA NP) HA] for
active targeting of localized cancer. The synthesized nanocarriers were found to possess
spherical morphology with mean size of 150.8 _ 9 nm and zeta potential of _24.9 _ 7.21 mV.
The encapsulation efficiency was found to be 79.19 _ 0.16% with a loading efficiency of 7.19
_ 0.01%. The Nano hybrids exhibited extreme cytocompatibility upon testing with MDA-MB-
231 and L929 cell lines. The rate of cancer cell elimination was approximately 85% with
targeted cell imaging results being highly convincing. [(NIC-PLGA NP) HA] demonstrates
increased cellular uptake leading to a hike in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation,
combating tumour cells aiding in the localized treatment of cancer and associated therapy
Jain NK, Prabhuraj RS, Bavya MC, Prasad R, Bandyopadhyaya R, Naidu VG, Srivastava R.
Niclosamide encapsulated polymeric nanocarriers for targeted cancer therapy. RSC
advances. 2019;9(46):26572-81.

Graphical Abstract

Fig. Schematic representation showing synthesis and cellular uptake of [(NIC-PLGA NP)
HA].

50 NIPER-G