Polycaprolactone nanofibers as an adjuvant strategy for Tamoxifen release and their cytotoxicity on breast cancer cells

Ana D Pinzón-García; Ruben Sinisterra; Maria Cortes; Fredy Mesa; Sandra Ramírez-Clavijo

doi:10.7717/peerj.12124

Polycaprolactone nanofibers as an adjuvant strategy for Tamoxifen release and their cytotoxicity on breast cancer cells

PeerJ. 2021 Oct 27:9:e12124. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12124. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Ana D Pinzón-García¹, Ruben Sinisterra¹, Maria Cortes², Fredy Mesa³, Sandra Ramírez-Clavijo³

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry Department, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
² Restorative Dentistry Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
³ Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, and tamoxifen citrate (TMX) is accepted widely for the treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers. Several local drug-delivery systems, including nanofibers, have been developed for antitumor treatment. Nanofibers are biomaterials that mimic the natural extracellular matrix, and they have been used as controlled release devices because they enable highly efficient drug loading. The purpose of the present study was to develop polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers incorporating TMX for use in the treatment of breast tumors. Pristine PCL and PCL-TMX nanofibers were produced by electrospinning and characterized physiochemically using different techniques. In addition, an in vitro study of TMX release from the nanofibers was performed. The PCL-TMX nanofibers showed sustained TMX release up to 14 h, releasing 100% of the TMX. The Resazurin reduction assay was used to evaluate the TMX cytotoxicity on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and PBMCs human. The PCL-TMX nanofiber was cytotoxic toPBMCs and MCF-7. Based on these results, the PCL-TMX nanofibers developed have potential as an alternative for local chronic TMX use for breast cancer treatment, however tissue tests must be done.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Nanofibers; Polycaprolactone; Tamoxifen citrate.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Brazilian Research agencies: CAPES, FAPEMIG, CNPq and Center of Microscopy at UFMG, and the Universidad del Rosario and MinCiencias-COLCIENCIAS Contract: FP44842-07-2018 Code: 122277657905. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.