(28j) Apoptotic Effects of Low Molecular Weight Fucoidan Released from PEGDA Nano-Particles Encapsulated in Chitosan on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 Cell Lines

Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of cancer death among women. Although early intervention and effective drug therapies have radically altered the outcome of BCs and steadily declined the death rate after 2017, the outcome is not quite as bright when it comes to triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC). Hormone therapy (such as tamoxifen) and HER2 drugs (such as Herceptin) are not viable treatments for TNBC, reducing treatment options and providing motivation to develop new targeted therapies. Fucoidan, a natural sulfonated polysaccharide derived from brown seaweed, is known to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo through cell cycle arrest with high selectivity toward cancer cells. This study was designed to increase fucoidan delivery by developing a new delivery system using PEGDA and chitosan. Cancer inhibition properties and apoptosis effect were determined before encapsulation and compared to fucoidan released from PEGDA/chitosan microspheres on TNBC MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7. Results show that chitosan works synergistically with the molecule to enhance anti-tumor activity, and 98% of the cells undergo apoptotic effect after 72 hours from the treatment. Data on this encapsulation system show it to be a viable method for fucoidan delivery as a natural anticancer drug.

Keywords: Fucoidan, natural product anti-cancer, drug delivery, chitosan, apoptosis