Electrospray application for enchanced delivery of anticancer drugs into cells

Abstract

Electrospray is a process based on applied high electric voltage on liquid, leading to the creation and acceleration of small sized droplets. Electrosprayed suspension with exogenous molecules on cells can trigger intracellular delivery. Here, the application study of anticancer drug delivery via electrospray as an antitumor treatment is presented in vitro and in vivo. In vitro experiments were performed on alveolar epithelial cells (A549). Cell viability was performed with flow cytometry assay. Apoptosis/ necrosis was measured using annexin V/PI kit. In vivo experiments were done with C57BL/6J mice. Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cell lines were injected intradermally to induce tumor. Electrospray was performed on tumor by cutting the skin. Tumor size was measured with caliper. Results show triggered PI transfer to cells after electrospray process. Moreover, obtained results in vitro showed successful cisplatin and methotrexate intracellular delivery, resulting in around 90 % of cell viability loss with methotrexate and 70 % of cell viability loss with cisplatin. In vivo experiments reveled a tumor decrease by around 2.5 times in 7 days after electrospray treatment at first and third day with both anticancer drugs. Here we show that electrospray method can be applied to local anticancer drug delivery to cells and tissues. Therefore, such method might be adapted as a clinical anticancer therapy in the future.