Abstract
The drug of choice for treating breast and ovarian cancers is usually paclitaxel. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a self-assembled nanoemulsion (SANE) of paclitaxel (NFP) on human breast (MCF-7) and ovarian (OVCAR-3) cancer cell lines. Cells were treated with various doses (1.2 nM-1200 nM of paclitaxel) as the NFP or suspended in DMSO (PSD). While both significantly inhibited cell proliferation of MCF-7 at doses >40 nM, at 12 nM the NFP significantly inhibited cell proliferation (-57%; p < 0.05) greater than the PSD (-5%). With OVCAR-3 cells, doses >12 nM for both significantly inhibited cell proliferation, but at 4 nM, the NFP significantly inhibited cell proliferation (-60%; p < 0.05) greater than the PSD (-23%). These results demonstrate that the effect of NFP on the cell proliferation of MCF-7 and OVCAR-3 cells are significantly greater at a lower dose than the PSD and that the NFP exhibited similar mode of action by induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest as the PSD. Therefore a SANE formulation of Paclitaxel has the potential to be a promising delivery system for anti-cancer drugs.
