Efficient delivery of anticancer drug MTX through MTX-LDH nanohybrid system

We have been successful to intercalate anticancer drug, methotrexate (MTX), into layered double hydroxides (LDHs), Mg₂Al(OH)₆(NO₃)·0.1H₂ O, through conventional co-precipitation method. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are endowed with great potential for delivery vector, since their cationic layers lead to safe reservation of biofunctional molecules such as drug molecules or genes. And their ion exchangeability and solubility in acidic media (pH<4) give rise to the controlled release of drug molecules. Moreover, it has been partly confirmed that LDH itself is non-toxic and facilitate the cellular permeation. To check the toxicity of LDHs, the osteosarcoma cell culture lines (Saos-2 and MG-63) and the normal one (human fibroblast) were used for in vitro test. The anticancer efficacy of MTX intercalated LDHs (MTX-LDH nanohybrids) was also estimated in vitro by the bioassay such as MTT and BrdU (5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine) with the bone cancer cell culture lines (Saos-2 and MG-63). According to the toxicity test results, LDHs do not harm to both the normal and cancer cells upto the concentration of 500 ug/mL. The anticancer efficacy test for the MTX-LDH nanohybrids turn out to be much more effective in cell suppression compared to the MTX itself. According to the cell-line tests, the MTX-LDH shows same drug efficacy to the MTX itself in spite of the low concentration by ∼5000 times. Such a high cancer suppression effect of MTX-LDH hybrid is surely due to the excellent delivery efficiency of inorganic delivery vector, LDHs.