Nuclear Medicine & Radiation Therapy

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy of Mcf-7 Breast Cancer Cells by Using Calcium Fructoborate@Au Nanoparticles Drug Encapsulated in Liposomal Nanocarriers: In-vitro Experimental Investigation

Abstract

Meisam Sadeghi*, Zahra Moghimifar and Hamedreza Javadian

In this research, calcium fructoborate (CFB) complex containing enriched 10B was used as a drug. The liposome prepared from phosphatidylcholine was applied as a biological macromolecule carrier of the drug. The liposome-encapsulated CFB (LECFB) was applied to treat MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The study demonstrated that AuNPs added to LECFB in the core-shell structure of LECFB with AuNPs (LECFB@AuNPs) can be considered selectively for the specific biological labeling and delivery of large quantities of boron to the cancer cells, respectively. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and folic acid (FA) were chosen as appropriate substrates to potentially attach to folate receptors (FR) on the surface of cancer cells before liposomal formulation. The size of folate-conjugated LECFB@AuNPs was around 240.9 nm, while the size of synthesized LECFB was 142.3 nm. The optimum encapsulation efficiency was 72.38 ± 1.68% under the conditions of T=60°C, drug:lipid ratio=1:5, and incubation time=60 min. PEGylated liposome improved 0.07 mg of the drug loading content, and the amounts of the drug release from PEGylated formulation at 37 and 42 °C were respectively 8.89 and 5.78% more than those obtained by the optimum formula of the drug encapsulation.