Nanogels fabricated from bovine serum albumin and chitosan via self-assembly for delivery of anticancer drug

In this study, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and chitosan (CS) were used to prepare BSA-CS nanogels by a simple green self-assembly technique. Then the nanogels were successfully used to entrap doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) with an entrapment ratio of 46.3%, aiming to realize the slow-release effect and lower the cytotoxicity of DOX. The IC50 values of DOX-loaded BSA-CS (DOX-BSA-CS) and free DOX obtained by MTT assay in SGC7901 cells were 0.22 and 0.05 mu g/mL, respectively. The cytotoxicity of DOX significantly decreased within 24h after encapsulation by the nanogels, indicating that the loaded drug could slowly release within 24h and the BSA-CS was a good slow release system. The cellular uptake experiments indicated DOX-BSA-CS diffused faster into the cancer cell than the bare drug. The flow cytometry and TUNEL assay proved DOX-BSA-CS could induce a larger apoptosis proportion of gastric cancer cells 7901 than the bare drug and it is promising to be used for curing gastric cancer. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.