Development and characterization of cationic solid lipid nanoparticles for co-delivery of pemetrexed and miR-21 antisense oligonucleotide to glioblastoma cells

The practical use of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) in research has been highlighted in the literature, but few reports have combined SLNs with miRNA-based therapy and chemotherapy. We aimed to prepare cationic SLNs (cSLNs) to load anti-miR-21 oligonucleotide and pemetrexed for glioblastoma therapy in vitro. cSLNs were employed to encapsulate both pemetrexed and anti-miR-21 by a high-pressure homogenization method, and then the properties of cSLNs were characterized. We studied cellular uptake and cytotoxicity properties of cSLNs in U87MG cells. cSLNs were 124.9 +/- 1.6 nm in size and 27.3 +/- 1.6 mV in zeta potential with spherical morphology in the TEM image. cSLNs uptake by U87MG cells was increased significantly higher and more effective than free pemetrexed. These findings suggest that cSLNs represent a potential new approach for carrying both pemetrexed and anti-miR-21 for glioblastoma therapy.