Fabrication of Hyaluronic Acid Surface Modified Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Loaded with Imatinib Mesylate for Targeting Human Breast Cancer MCF-7 Cells

Targeted chemotherapies offer a great potential advantage due to their ability to enhance specificity to deliver high doses directly to the target site. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) of imatinib mesylate (IM) were formulated by high shear homogenization and probe sonication using glyceryl palmitostearate (GP) as lipid carrier and quillaja saponin (QS) as surfactant. Additionally, the SLNs were coated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to enhance specificity towards cancerous cells. The prepared SLNs were characterized for particle size, zeta potential, surface morphology, entrapment efficiency, in vitro release, and cytotoxicity. The least particle size of 92.1 ± 2.41 nm was observed for HA surface-modified SLNs of IM. As IM is a hydrophilic drug, the entrapment efficiencies of the formulations were low, with a maximum of 65.9 ± 0.6%, and in vitro release studies performed using phosphate buffer saline indicated that 100% of the drug was released in 10 h. The cytotoxicity and apoptosis studies of the free IM and its encapsulated form in SLNs, and HA-coated SLNs evaluated in MCF-7 breast cancer cell line suggested a synergistic effect.