Preparation and in vitro and in vivo evaluation of folate-BSA-coated cationic nanostructure lipid carriers

Folic acid(FA)was conjugated with bovine serum albumin(BSA)to form targeting material. BSA-coated cationic nanostructure lipid carriers(BSA-cNLCs)and folate-BSA-coated cationic nanostructure lipid carriers(FA-BSA-cNLCs)were prepared by film dispersion. The particle sizes of BSA-cNLCs and FA-BSA-cNLCs were 81. 4 nm and 79. 8 nm, while their Zeta potentials were +5. 12 mV and +3. 74 mV. Both nanostructure lipid carriers showed spherical shape. Paclitaxel encapsulation efficiency of them were more than 97%, with drug loading efficiency of about 3. 7%. In vitro experiments confirmed that the uptake of FA-BSA-cNLCs by overexpressed folate receptor SKOV3 cells was significantly higher than that of BSA-cNLCs, demonstrating that FA-BSA-cNLCs were obviously targeted to SKOV3. Blood and tumor pharmacokinetics showed that there was no significant differences between BSA-cNLCs and FA-BSA-cNLCs. This suggested that modified FA on the surface of the preparation had no effect on its in vivo behavior. Tumor inhibition of BSA-cNLCs and FA-BSA-cNLCs were 72. 08% and 80. 75%, repectively, which indicateds that FA-BSA-cNLCs improve anticancer efficacy in vitro and in vivo, and that it could be a potential preparation for the treatment of cancer.