Nisin-Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Enhances Anticancer Activity Over Free Nisin

Objectives: Nisin, a bacteriocin and also a food preservative safe for human consumption, has growing biomedical applications against cancer activity in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Our recent studies demonstrated that loading nisin into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN-Nisin) significantly increased nisin’s anticancer activity in oral cancer. By harnessing the safety of nisin and increased anticancer efficacy of SLN-Nisin, we investigate nisin and SLN-Nisin’s potential to treat aggressive cancers of the prostate, lung, colon, thyroid, breast, liver, and determine the toxicity towards the normal cell counterparts of these cancers.
Methods: SLN-Nisin was formulated via the microemulsion-extrusion method. Cell proliferation assays were used to evaluate the effects of nisin on all cancer cell types [oral (HSC-3, UMSCC-14A), prostate (PC-3), lung (A549), colon (HCT-15, DLD-1), thyroid (TPC-1, 8505C), breast (Hs578T), and liver (HepG2)] and normal cell types [prostate (PCS-440-010), lung (CCL-210), colon (CRL-1459), thyroid (HTF-3730), breast (Hs578Bst), and liver (THLE-2)]. Intergroup differences were analyzed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s post hoc test.
Results: Both nisin and SLN-Nisin significantly suppressed cell proliferation of oral, prostate, lung, colon, thyroid, breast, and liver cancer cells dose-dependently. Notably, SLN-Nisin demonstrated enhanced anticancer activity compared to free nisin. Nisin and SLN-Nisin exhibited no toxicity on normal human lung, colon, and thyroid cells. Studies on normal prostate, breast, and liver cells are ongoing.
Conclusions: SLN-Nisin exhibits significant anticancer effects compared to free nisin on multiple aggressive cancers, showing the potential of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems as a useful tool for cancer therapy.