The folate-chitosan-decorated harmaline nanostructured lipid carrier (FCH-NLC), the efficient selective anticancer nano drug delivery system

The limited solubility of the phytochemical bioactive compounds in aqueous solutions decreases their anticancer potentials. Moreover, the not-selective cytotoxicity of anticancer compounds increases several types of clinical side effects. Therefore, we aimed to encapsulate harmaline in a folate-chitosan-coated nanostructured lipid carrier drug delivery system to evaluate its anticancer activity on human MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The Folate-chitosan-decorated harmaline nanostructured lipid carrier (FCH-NLC) were synthesized and characterized by conducting DLS, FTIR, FESEM, and surface Zeta potential analysis. The FCH-NLC cytotoxicity was determined using an MTT assay on MCF-7 cancer cells compared with a normal HFF cell line. The cell death mechanism was investigated by analyzing the cell cycle status, apoptotic gene expression (Caspase 3, 8, 9), and AO/PI stained cells. The 153-nm FCH-NLC (PDI = 0.235) significantly decreased the MCF-7 cell survival by inducing apoptotic gene overexpression (Caspase 3, 8, 9). The meaningfully increased reddish orange dead cells and increased SubG1 arrested cells population indicated the apoptotic death in MCF-7 cancer cells. The FCH-NLC selectively induced apoptotic death in the human MCF-7 cancer cells. Their selective apoptotic activity can be attributed to folate receptors in the MCF-7 cancer cells compared with normal HFF cells. Therefore, the FCH-NLC can potentially decrease cancer cell survival through a receptor-mediated endocytosis mechanism. However, further studies are required to verify the FCH-NLC apoptotic mechanism.