One of the main goals in cancer research is to develop chemotherapeutic agents that are selectively toxic to cancer cells and nontoxic to normal cells. In addition, biocompatible delivery agents are required. This study evaluates the use of human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles (NPs) as a biocompatible drug delivery agent for indocyanine green (ICG) and doxorubicin (Dox) drug. ICG is a near infrared (NIR) dye that is approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration for biomedical imaging, and doxorubicin is an anticancer drug. By using NIR laser illumination, ICG has photothermal and photodynamic properties against tumor cells. Coupled with the chemotherapeutic properties of doxorubicin, the synthesized HSA-ICG-Dox NPs with particle size of ~ 150 nm has the potential for improved therapeutic activity against tumor cells. In addition, these therapeutic agents can be released from HSA nanoparticles by the enzymatic action of metalloproteinases that are overexpressed in tumor cells. We report the nanoparticle stability, encapsulation efficiency, and the enzymatic release of the loaded dye and drug from the HSA NPs. This work demonstrates the possibility for using HSA NPs to generate a hybrid drug delivery system to tumor sites and for enzymatic drug release resulting in improved treatment.

Crosslinked human serum albumin nanoparticles co-encapsulating indocyanine green and doxorubicin for cancer diagnosis and therapy

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.