Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among gynecologic malignancies and two third of patients diagnosed with advanced stage disease and the majority suffers recurrence of disease. Albendazole (ABZ), a well-established antiparasitic drug has been recently explored as an effective drug for the treatment of variety of cancer, such as hepatocellular, colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancer. 1,2 ABZ inhibits peritoneal growth of human colorectal cancer cells (HT-29), reduces VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) production and abolishes tumor angiogenesis and ascites formation.3 However, the low solubility of ABZ remains a challenge limiting its use as a systemic anticancer agent. With an aim to develop a potential therapeutics for the treatment of ovarian cancer, our project was designed to encapsulate ABZ into albumin nanoparticles by nab-technology.4
Therefore, the preparation, characterization of novel albumin based nano formulation of albendazole (nab-ABZ) was evaluated in ovarian cancer cell lines and also normal ovarian cell lines in vitro and in-vivo intraperitoneal xenograft tumor model. The formulation was prepared by pH sensitive desolvation process and particle size was found 150-250 nm with drug encapsulation efficiency 70%- 90%. pH sensitive release behavior was observed during drug release studies. The IC50 value of nab-ABZ observed significantly higher in normal cells compare to cancer cells. Confocal microscopy study and fluocytometry analysis confirmed that nab-ABZ successfully internalized into the cancer cell lines within one hour of incubation. Therefore, our findings suggest that albumin nanoparticles efficiently encapsulate ABZ and specifically increase cancer cells uptake compare to normal cells. These results have great significance in developing and optimizing effective intracellular delivery of ABZ to the tumor tissue while minimizing damage to healthy cells.