Folic acid receptor conjugated mesoporous CaCO3 nanoformulation for the therapeutic potential against lung carcinoma

The folic acid conjugation with the nanocarrier system possess enhanced targeting of lung cancer cells due to the folate receptors present in the lung cancer cells. This work plan focused on the development of a mesoporous CaCO3 nanoformulation system for the targeted delivery of citronellyl acetate for lung cancer therapy. CaCO3 nanoparticles were obtained from the marine conch waste and the citronellyl acetate an acetic ester derivative of citronellol reported for its anticancer potential were used for the present study. Here the citronellyl acetate loaded CaCO3 formulation was surface conjugated with folic acid as an extension of our previous work. The physiochemical and material characterizations of folic acid conjugated nanoformulation confirms the loading of citronellyl acetate within CaCO3 nanoparticles and surface conjugation with folic acid. The folic receptor conjugated CaCO3 nanoformulation attained anticancer potential against H460 non-small cell lung cancer cell lines with the IC50 value at 102.09 ± 0.25 μg/mL. In addition, the receptor-conjugated nanoformulation withstands its biocompatibility level in the in-vitro and in-vivo toxicity evaluation models. The findings of this study suggest that, CaCO3 nanoformulation surface conjugated with folic acid can serve as a progressive drug delivery system for lung cancer therapy.