Polyvinyl Alcohol

With an aim to fulfill the need for developing an effective anticancer drug with low toxicity, a Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) stabilized nanoniosomal formulation has been designed to improve the solubility and efficacy of Thymol (TH), a herbal drug. Box–Behnken design-based TH-loaded niosomes were prepared and characterized by DLS, TEM and SEM analyses, which showed promising encapsulation efficiency (% EE) and stability up to 2 months. The formulated Nio-TH/PVA displayed pH-sensitive drug release behavior that showed selective cytotoxic activity against MCF-7, AGS and HepG2 cancer cells with high selectivity toward HFF normal cells. Detailed mechanistic studies, such as MTT assay, flow cytometry, and RT-PCR analysis, revealed that Nio-TH induces apoptosis through alteration in the expression of Caspase-3/9, Cyclin D/E and MMP-2/9 and increased ROS generation along with inhibition of migration. Thus, it can be concluded that Nio-TH/PVA is a promising pH-responsive drug delivery system for controlled release with better apoptotic and antimetastatic efficacy with low toxicity.

Fig. 2 Polyvinyl alcohol-tailored nanoniosomes: A robust strategy for enhancing the bioavailability and in vitro anticancer activity of thymol. (Abdihaji M, et al. 2023)