Honokiol nanomicellar formulation produced an increased oral bioavailability and anticancer effects in triple negative breast cancer. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Honokiol nanomicellar formulation produced increased oral bioavailability and anticancer effects in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).
Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2017 May 1 ;153:208-219. Epub 2017 Jan 23. PMID: 28249200
Chandraiah Godugu
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), owing to its aggressive behavior and toxicity associated with available chemotherapy; currently no suitable therapy is available. Honokiol (HNK) is a promising anticancer drug but has poor bioavailability. In the current study, we evaluated the anticancer effects of an oral Honokiol nanomicellar (NM) formulation (size range of 20-40nm) in vitro against various TNBC cells lines. Cytotoxicity, clonogenic and wound healing assays demonstrated the promising anticancer effects. In vitro Caco-2 permeability studies suggested increased absorption of Honokiol. Compared to HNK-FD, nanomicellar formulations resulted in significant increase in the oral bioavailability. Cmax (4.06 and 3.60-fold) and AUC (6.26 and 5.83-fold) were significantly increased in comparison to oral 40 and 80mg/kg free drug respectively. Further, anticancer effects of these formulations were studied in BALB/c nude mice transplanted with orthotopic MDA-MB-231 cell induced xenografts. After 4 weeks of daily administration of HNK-NM formulation, significant reduction in the tumor volumes and weights compared to free drug (p<0.001) treated groups was observed. Surprisingly, in some of the animals (25%), the treatment resulted in complete eradication of tumors. Increased apoptosis and antiangiogenic effect was observed in HNK-NM groups compared to free drug and untreated control animals. This is the first report demonstrating that HNK-FD possesses anticancer effects against TNBC.