High-Molecular-Weight Fractions of Spruce and Eucalyptus Lignin as a Perspective Nanoparticle-Based Platform for a Therapy Delivery in Liver Cancer

Ievgen V Pylypchuk; Huizhen Suo; Chanakarn Chucheepchuenkamol; Nils Jedicke; Pär A Lindén; Mikael E Lindström; Michael P Manns; Olena Sevastyanova; Tetyana Yevsa

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.817768

High-Molecular-Weight Fractions of Spruce and Eucalyptus Lignin as a Perspective Nanoparticle-Based Platform for a Therapy Delivery in Liver Cancer

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Feb 7:9:817768. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.817768. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Ievgen V Pylypchuk^{1

2}, Huizhen Suo³, Chanakarn Chucheepchuenkamol^{1

4}, Nils Jedicke³, Pär A Lindén⁵, Mikael E Lindström^{1

5}, Michael P Manns³, Olena Sevastyanova^{1

5}, Tetyana Yevsa³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Wood Chemistry and Pulp Technology, Department of Fiber and Polymer Technology, School of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
² Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
⁴ Department of Science Service, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Ratchathewi, Thailand.
⁵ Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fiber and Polymer Technology, School of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

The natural polymer, lignin, possesses unique biodegradable and biocompatible properties, making it highly attractive for the generation of nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapy. In this study, we investigated spruce and eucalyptus lignin nanoparticles (designated as S-and E-LNPs, respectively). Both LNP types were generated from high-molecular-weight (M _w ) kraft lignin obtained as insoluble residues after a five-step solvent fractionation approach, which included ethyl acetate, ethanol, methanol, and acetone. The resulting S-and E-LNPs ranged in size from 16 to 60 nm with uniform spherical shape regardless of the type of lignin. The preparation of LNPs from an acetone-insoluble lignin fraction is attractive because of the use of high-M _w lignin that is otherwise not suitable for most polymeric applications, its potential scalability, and the consistent size of the LNPs, which was independent of increased lignin concentrations. Due to the potential of LNPs to serve as delivery platforms in liver cancer treatment, we tested, for the first time, the efficacy of newly generated E-LNPs and S-LNPs in two types of primary liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), in vitro. Both S-LNPs and E-LNPs inhibited the proliferation of HCC cells in a dose-dependent manner and did not affect CCA cell line growth. The inhibitory effect toward HCC was more pronounced in the E-LNP-treated group and was comparable to the standard therapy, sorafenib. Also, E-LNPs induced late apoptosis and necroptosis while inhibiting the HCC cell line. This study demonstrated that an elevated number of carbohydrates on the surface of the LNPs, as shown by NMR, seem to play an important role in mediating the interaction between LNPs and eukaryotic cells. The latter effect was most pronounced in E-LNPs. The novel S- and E-LNPs generated in this work are promising materials for biomedicine with advantageous properties such as small particle size and tailored surface functionality, making them an attractive and potentially biodegradable delivery tool for combination therapy in liver cancer, which still has to be verified in vivo using HCC and CCA models.

Keywords: apoptosis; cancer treatment; cholangiocarcinoma (CCA); eucalyptus lignin; hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); lignin nanoparticles (LNPs); primary liver cancer (PLC); spruce lignin.