In vitro antitumor efficacy of hyaluronic acid coating for curcumin-loaded zeolitic imidazole frameworks-8 (ZIF-8) versus that of uncoated curcumin-loaded ZIF-8 nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract Cancer continues to pose one of the biggest health burdens. Liver cancer has difficulties with early detection, efficient treatment and treatment resistance. Zeolitic imidazole framework-8(ZIF-8) is a type of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that has a lot of useful properties; including its structural flexibility, high porosity and adjustable pore sizes, these make such framework good for drug delivery for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and breast cancer. In the present study, curcumin was loaded into ZIF-8, and hyaluronic acid was applied as coat in a step-by-step, molar ratio, and pH-dependent manner. The resulting curcumin-loaded ZIF-8 (CZIF-8) and curcumin-loaded ZIF-8 coated with hyaluronic acid (CZIF-8/HA) nanocomposites were characterized by zeta potential, SEM, TEM, and PXRD. The obtained irregular semi-spherical nanocomposites have an average particle size of 127.93 and 131.07 nm; respectively. Also, their anticancer activities against two cancerous cell lines (HepG-2 and MDA-MB-231) and non-cancerous cell line (MCR-5) were assessed in vitro along with reference drug such as doxorubicin using the MTT assay. Additionally, the mechanisms by which these nanocomposites kill these tumor cells were found to involve apoptosis (elevated caspase-3 expression) rather than necrotic one and cell cycle arresting at G1/S phase. These particles have lower IC 50; particularly against HepG-2. Further, CZIF-8/HA demonstrated significantly higher cytotoxicity against cancer cells (HepG-2 and MDA-MB-231) compared to CZIF-8 and doxorubicin, while exhibiting minimal toxicity toward normal MRC-5 cells. These results imply that ZIF-8/HA is a promising nanocarrier for curcumin administration and could be used as a therapeutic strategy for breast and liver cancer treatment.