Effect of Cytotoxicity of Pegylated Liposomal Recombinant Human Erythropoietin - alfa on Neuroblastoma Cell Line SH - SY5Y

Purpose: To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of pegylated liposomal Recombinant Human Erythropoietin - alfa (rHuEPO) nanoparticles synthesized by reverse phase evaporation technique on SH-SY5Y cell line.
Methods: To prepare the nanoparticles of the drug, rHuEPO, PEG3000, cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine were dissolved in buffer phosphate. The characteristics of the synthesized nanoparticles were determined by a zetasizer. Encapsulation efficiency, drug loading efficiency and drug release pattern were evaluated spectrophotometrically. The cytotoxicity effect of pegylated nanoliposomal rHuEPO was evaluated on SH-SY5Y cell line by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.
Results: Size and zeta potential of pegylated nanoliposomal drug and blank pegylated nanoliposomes were 571 ± 6.8 nm, -16.5 mV; 280 ± 4.71 nm and -27.1 mV, respectively. Encapsulation and drug loading efficiency were 89 ± 3.9 % and 0.8 ± 0.012 %, respectively. Drug release data indicate that 17% of rHuEPO was released from pegylated liposomal nanoparticles over a period of 30 h. The difference in cytotoxicity between the free drug (IC₅₀= 110.1 ±3.1 μg/ml) and nanodrug (IC₅₀= 87.2 ± 2.3 μg/ml) was statistically significant (p ˂ 0.05).
Conclusion: This study shows that pegylated nanoliposomal rHuEPO has a powerful cytotoxic effect on SH-SY5Y cell line and is therefore a suitable alternative to the standard therapy, rHuEPO, for the chemotherapy of neuroblastoma.

Keywords
Recombinant Human Erythropoietin - alfa; Cytotoxicity; Drug delivery; Liposome; Reverse phase evaporation; SH - SY5Y cell line