Every year thousands of people are diagnosed with cancer, a disease that in many cases is debilitating or fatal. Cancerous cells cause harm by reproducing until a dense tumor is formed, invading nearby tissues and inhibiting them from functioning properly. Lung cancer is considered to be especially aggressive, having a five-year survival rate of 16.8% between 2004 and 2010. A major factor contributing to this low survival rate is the strong chance of cancer recurrence after successful treatments. Currently there are few known cancer preventative drugs that are proven to be effective in the treatment of lung cancer.
The use of nanoparticles for the treatment of cancer is a recent development that has shown great potential in its use in the more effective delivery of anti-cancer drugs. In particular, nanoparticles can pass through cancerous tissue and cell membranes due to their size and have been shown to increase bioavailability of drugs. This improved delivery allows for a more controlled drug release in terms of both concentration and location in the body.
The goal of our research is to analyze the preventive effect of resveratrol (RSV)-loaded nanoparticles on an advanced in vitro three-dimensional (3D) lung cancer tumor model. RSV was loaded into acetylated dextran-based polymer nanoparticles (NP) via solvent evaporation and these NP were evaluated for their size, homogeneity, and drug loading. The size of the RSV NP (approximately 200 nm) has been optimized and RSV has been effectively loaded into the NP system. 3D multicellular spheroids (MCS) comprised of lung cancer cells (A549 adenocarcinoma) were exposed to both free RSV and RSV NP both during and after MCS formation to show the ability of the treatment systems to prevent tumor formation. The development of optimized RSV NP could help the ongoing effort to reduce the risk of developing lung cancer.
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