Mesoporous silica MCM-41 and HMS as advanced drug delivery carriers for bicalutamide

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jddst.2021.102340
• Publication Date: 2021-01-10T04:03:04Z
• Authors: Teodora Popova; Borislav Tzankov; Christina Voycheva; Ivanka Spassova; Daniela Kovacheva; Stanislav Tzankov; Denitsa Aluani; Virginia Tzankova; Nikolai Lambov
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 3. Good health

Abstract This study presents the potential of Mobil Composition of Matter No.41 (MCM-41) and Hollow Mesoporous Silica (HMS) as an efficient drug delivery system for anticancer drug bicalutamide (BLT). Bicalutamide loaded nanoparticles were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2-physisorption, dynamic light scattering (DLS), TEM and attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra. Drug loading procedure leads to high drug loading in both MCM-41 (40%) and HMS particles (62%). The loading of bicalutamide onto MCM-41 and HMS particles leads to a reduction in the initial burst effect and slows down the drug release in the used media compared to the pure drug. The safety experiments confirm good blood biocompatibility of both empty and bicalutamide-loaded nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity studies show that bicalutamide loading in mesoporous silica nanoparticles increases its in vitro antitumor activity against prostate adenocarcinoma LNCaP cells with the rank order of potency HMS/B > MCM-41/B > free bicalutamide. In conclusion, the newly developed formulations might be considered as promising delivery systems for bicalutamide, providing more reliable drug bioavailability, good safety and increased in vitro antitumor activity against LNCaP prostate adenocarcinoma cells.