Preparation and Nanoencapsulation of Lectin from <i>Lepidium sativum</i> on Chitosan‐Tripolyphosphate Nanoparticle and Their Cytotoxicity against Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells (HepG2)
Unzila Yasin, Muhammad Bilal, Hamid Bashir, Muhammad Imran Amirzada, Aleena Sumrin, Muhammad Hassham Hassan Bin Asad
Abstract
Lectins are the oligomeric sugar‐specific glycoprotein of nonimmune origin, are involved in the multiple biological recognition process, and have the capacity to perform a wide variety of physiological functions including antifungal, antiviral, antitumor, and cell agglutination. The main objective of the current study was to prepare lectin protein‐loaded chitosan‐TPP nanoparticles via ionic gelation methods with different CS/TPP ratios and to investigate anticancer potential against HepG2 cells. The best ratio showed the mean particle size (298.10 ± 1.9 nm, 21.05 ± 0.95 mv) with optimal encapsulation efficiencies of 52.435 ± 0.09 % . The cytotoxicity was evaluated against HepG2 cells, and IC 50 values obtained were 265 μ g/ml for lectin protein and 105 μ g/ml for lectin‐loaded chitosan‐TPP nanoparticles, respectively. The mRNA expression of proliferation markers like GPC3 was significantly decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) during lectin protein‐loaded chitosan‐TPP nanoparticle treatment. Apoptotic genes that indicating a marked increase in expression are Caspase 3 , p53 , and Bax , while Bcl2 and AFP showed a downregulation of expression after treatment of HepG2 cells with lectin‐loaded chitosan‐TPP nanoparticles. The preliminary findings of our study highlighted that lectin protein‐loaded chitosan‐TPP nanoparticles could be a promising anticancer agent.