Kabalan Yasmin, Matulewicz Karolina, Tylkowski Bartosz, Woźniak-Budych Marta, Staszak Katarzyna, Montané Xavier, Bajek Anna
Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Faculty of Medicine, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, Aleje Prof. S. Kaliskiego 7, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jun 10;26(12):5530. doi: 10.3390/ijms26125530.
Bladder cancer remains a significant global health challenge, necessitating innovative therapeutic strategies to enhance treatment efficacy. This study investigates the potential of chitosan nanoparticles as a drug delivery system, using ciprofloxacin as a model compound and utilizing a 3D spheroid model of bladder cancer that better reflects in vivo tumour conditions. The encapsulation efficiency of ciprofloxacin was optimized on the appropriate mass ratio of chitosan to cross-linking tripolyphosphate (TPP) polyanion. The resulting spherical chitosan nanocapsules loaded with ciprofloxacin demonstrated improved stability and controlled drug release, addressing the limitations of non-encapsulated ciprofloxacin. In 3D T24 bladder cancer spheroids, encapsulated ciprofloxacin exhibited enhanced cytotoxicity compared to free-drug formulations, with significant effects observed at ciprofloxacin concentrations of 500 and 1000 μM after 48 and 72 h of exposure. The 3D spheroid model, which better mimics the tumour microenvironment than 2D cultures, enabled a more accurate drug efficacy evaluation. The results demonstrate that chitosan nanocapsules can improve the delivery and cytotoxic profile of ciprofloxacin in vitro, indicating their potential for further development as carriers in localized bladder cancer treatment.
膀胱癌仍然是一项重大的全球健康挑战，需要创新的治疗策略来提高治疗效果。本研究以环丙沙星为模型化合物，利用能更好反映体内肿瘤状况的膀胱癌三维球体模型，研究壳聚糖纳米颗粒作为药物递送系统的潜力。通过壳聚糖与交联三聚磷酸钠（TPP）聚阴离子的适当质量比优化环丙沙星的包封效率。所得负载环丙沙星的球形壳聚糖纳米胶囊表现出更高的稳定性和可控的药物释放，解决了未包封环丙沙星的局限性。在三维T24膀胱癌球体中，与游离药物制剂相比，包封的环丙沙星表现出更强的细胞毒性，在暴露48和72小时后，在500和1000μM的环丙沙星浓度下观察到显著效果。三维球体模型比二维培养能更好地模拟肿瘤微环境，从而能够进行更准确的药物疗效评估。结果表明，壳聚糖纳米胶囊可以在体外改善环丙沙星的递送和细胞毒性特征，表明它们作为局部膀胱癌治疗载体具有进一步开发的潜力。
