Surface modified and rituximab functionalized PAMAM G4 nanoparticle for targeted imatinib delivery to leukemia cells: In vitro studies

• DOI: 10.1016/j.procbio.2021.09.006
• Publication Date: 2021-09-17T11:35:05Z
• Authors: Parastoo Fotouhi; Saeedeh Sohrabi; Negar Nosrati; Ali Zaman Vaziri; Sepideh Khaleghi; Asghar Narmani; Hanieh Jafari; Javad Mohammadnejad
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 3. Good health

Abstract Cancer therapy is one of the most important issues in human beings’ life since it is the determining cause of death all over the world. In this research, polyethylene glycol (P: PEG) modified and rituximab (Ab: antibody) functionalized polyamidoamine (P: PAMAM) G4 dendrimers were developed for the efficient delivery of imatinib (D: drug) to leukemia cancer cells. The Ab-P-P-D nano-complex was effectively synthesized and subsequently, characterized with analytical devices, including Nano-drop UV–vis, FT-IR, TGA, DLS, and TEM. The drug loading efficiency of the Ab-P-P-D sample was calculated at 37.87 % and the size less than 40 nm in diameter was detected via TEM. Additionally, the drug release profile of nano-complex was investigated and the controlled release behavior of nano-complex was determined at various pHs. In the next phase, the sorts of biomedical tests such as cell viability, gene expression, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis analyses were carried out to evaluate cancer cell inhibition potency of the nano-complex. The Ab-P-P-D nano-complex showed 13.84 ± 2.34 % cell viability after 72 h of treatment, more than 6 folds expression values in the caspase3 gene, 23.26 % of cells in the sub-G1 phase, and 39 % apoptosis in cancer cells. These results are presenting Ab-P-P-D nano-complex as an effective drug delivery system (DDS) for cancer therapy.