The cell-surface molecule CD44 plays a major role in the regulation of cancer stem cells. The CD44 inhibitor compound N'-(1-dimethylaminomethyl-2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-2-(benzyloxy)benzohydrazide (OYB), anticancer agent is practically insoluble in water. Hence, the solid dispersion (SD) technique was used for enhancing the dissolution of OYB. The SD of OYB was achieved using OYB:poloxamer 188 (1:7) via the fusion method. The anticancer activities of the free-OYB solution and the SD formulation (OYB-SD) were investigated in-vitro. The dissolution rate of OYB-SD (1:7) increased by 2-fold compared with the untreated drug (51.52-100% at pH 1.2 and 8.25-19.15% at pH 7 buffer). In addition, OYB-SD afforded 3-folds cytotoxic effect, against LoVo cells, compared to the untreated compound (IC50 4.72 ± 0.57 and 13.97 ± 0.90 µg/ml, respectively) and against HepG2 (∼3-fold) (4.98 ± 0.368 and 13.85 ± 1.82 µg/ml, respectively) and MCF-7 (1.4-fold) cells (15.20 ± 0.20 and 21.12 ± 0.51 µg/ml, respectively), and enhanced the apoptotic potential in LoVo cells compared with free-OYB. The improved cytotoxic activity of the drug might be attributable to the enhanced dissolution of OYB.
Keywords: poloxamer 188; CD44 inhibitors; N′-(1-dimethylaminomethyl-2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-2-(benzyloxy)benzohydrazide; Solid dispersion; cytotoxicity.