Synthesis of Methotrexate Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles and in vitro Evaluation of the Potential in Treatment of Prostate Cancer

The objective of the study was to investigate the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of Methotrexate (MTX)-loaded chitosan (CS) on LNCaP prostate cancer cell line in vitro. For this purpose, CS nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized through ionic gelation method and MTX was loaded into the carrier with encapsulation. SEM images of the CS NPs have revealed that they have size of about 85 nm in mono-disperse manner. Drug loading yield was found to be 95.7 % with 470 μg drug/mg NP loading capacity. In vitro drug release study showed that MTX was released in a controlled manner. Cell viability was detected by using trypan blue dye exclusion test and WST-1 cell proliferation assay was performed to show cytotoxic effects of the CS, the MTX and the MTX-loaded NP. IC50 values of CS, MTX and MTX-loaded NPs were assigned from the cell survival plot and were determined as 67.18 μM, 20.21 μM and 2.94 μM at the 72nd hour, respectively. As for apoptosis analysis results, following to MTX-loaded CS treatment of LNCAP cells, apoptotic cell percent was detected as 39.3 % at the 72nd hour, that is, MTX-loaded CS induces 1.85-fold increase in apoptotic cell percent in comparison with that of MTX- induced apoptosis.