Novel anticancer drug delivery system based on zeolite encapsulating Hamelia patens leaf and flower extracts

Abstract

Nanotechnology had placed an impact in improving the antiproliferative activity of crude leaf (CL) and flower (CF) extracts of Hamelia patens on the liver (HEPG2) and breast (MCF7) carcinoma cell lines, after their encapsulation onto zeolite (ZSM-5) nanopores, which acts as a drug delivery system (DDS). The cytotoxicity of the new formulas showed remarkable improvement in the activities on HEPG2. CL had low activity on HEPG2, at the tested concentrations, but the ZSM-5 loaded one (CLZ) showed enhanced action with IC₅₀=42 μg/mL. Also, the cytotoxicity of CF improved after Zeolite incorporation, where the IC₅₀ has been changed from 48 μg/mL for CF to 25 μg/mL for CFZ. Moreover, the polar fraction of leaves extracted by methanol (Me.L) showed improvement on the cytotoxicity on MCF7 for zeolite loaded formula (Me.Z) (IC₅₀ had changed from 65 to 44.4 μg/mL). Quantitative estimations for polyphenolic contents as well as the phenolic profiles for CF and CL extracts were inspected using HPLC-DAD to explore the bioactive phytochemical compounds. Acute toxicity test showed that LD₅₀ was 1500 and 2333 mg/kg b.wt. for CL and CF, respectively. The cytogenetic study was also done to detect the chromosome aberrations in somatic and germ cells after CL and CF administration to mice. DPPH antioxidant capacity assay revealed that CL has high redox-active effect than CF. This study is a contribution to the development of a creative new DDS that help in cancer treatment.