Controllable synthesis and characterisation of palladium (II) anticancer complex-loaded colloidal gelatin nanoparticles as a novel sustained-release delivery system in cancer therapy

Over the past few years, there have been several attempts to deliver anticancer drugs into the body. It has been shown that compared to other available carriers, colloidal gelatin nanoparticles (CGNPs) have distinct properties due to their exceptional physico-chemical and biological characteristics. In this study, a novel water-soluble palladium (II) anticancer complex was first synthesised, and then loaded into CGNPs. The CGNPs were synthesised through a two-step desolvation method with an average particle size of 378 nm. After confirming the stability of the drug in the nanoparticles, the drug-loaded CGNPs were tested for in vitro cytotoxicity against human breast cancer cells. The results showed that the average drug encapsulating efficiency and drug loading of CGNPs were 64 and 10 ± 2.1% (w/w), respectively. There was a slight shift to higher values of cumulative release, when the samples were tested in lower pH values. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity test indicated that the number of growing cells significantly decreased after 48 h in the presence of different concentrations of drug. The results also demonstrated that the released drug could bind to DNA by a static mechanism at low concentrations (0.57 µM) on the basis of hydrophobic and hydrogen binding interactions.