Mesoporous silica MCM-41 and HMS as advanced drug delivery carriers for bicalutamide

This study presents the potential of Mobil Composition of Matter No.41 (MCM-41) and Hollow Mesoporous Silica (HMS) as an efficient drug delivery system for anticancer drug bicalutamide (BLT). Bicalutamide loaded nano particles were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2-physisorption, dynamic light scattering (DLS), TEM and attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra. Drug loading procedure leads to high drug loading in both MCM-41 (40%) and HMS particles (62%). The loading of bicalutamide onto MCM-41 and HMS particles leads to a reduction in the initial burst effect and slows down the drug release in the used media compared to the pure drug. The safety experiments confirm good blood biocompatibility of both empty and bicalutamide-loaded nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity studies show that bicalutamide loading in mesoporous silica nanoparticles increases its in vitro antitumor activity against prostate adenocarcinoma LNCaP cells with the rank order of potency HMS/B > MCM-41/B > free bicalutamide. In conclusion, the newly developed formulations might be considered as promising delivery systems for bicalutamide, providing more reliable drug bioavailability, good safety and increased in vitro antitumor activity against LNCaP prostate adenocarcinoma cells.