Effects of Morellic Acid Loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers on the Apoptosis and Pyroptosis in Human Gastric Cancer MGC-803 Cells

The objective of this study is to investigate the anti-tumor effect and its molecular mechanism of morellic acid loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (MA-NLCs) on human gastric cancer MGC-803 cells. MA-NLCs was prepared using an emulsion-evaporation and low temperature solidification method. The MA-NLCs were characterized by TEM, particle size, zeta potential, EE% and DL%. MTT assay was performed to evaluate the anti-tumor activities of MA formulations and IC50 values of free MA and MANLCs were 1.86 +/- 0.03 mu M and 0.736 +/- 0.02 mu M, respectively. The results of Annexin V-PI staining indicated that MA formulations could induce apoptosis in MGC-803 cells. The results of morphology and LDH release assay suggested that MA formulations could induce pyroptosis in MGC-803 cells. Compared to free MA, MA-NLCs exhibited a stronger efficacy of inducing apoptosis and pyroptosis. Moreover, molecular mechanism of the anti-tumor activities of MA-NLCs was investigated by determination of the expression of apoptosis and pyroptosis related proteins.