Design, Optimization and Characterization of Gemcitabine - Loaded Cubosomes for Treatment of Breast Cancer in MCF-7 Cell Lines

Current research work aimed to design, characterize and optimize gemcitabine (GCB) cubo-somes for the effective treatment of breast cancer. Cubosomes were developed by using solvent evaporation technique and optimized using 3² Factorial design to verify effect vesicle size and entrapment efficiency using poloxamer-407 (P-407) as emulsifier and glyceryl monooleate (GMO) as lipid. The optimized GCB cubo-somes were characterized for morphology by transmission electron microscope (TEM), crystalline by X-ray diffraction (XRD), in vitro release, in vitro cytotoxicity, apoptotic potential, etc. Optimized GCB cubosomes have a mean vesicle size of 184.2±3 nm with PDI 0.230± 0.046, zeta potential-28.1±2.73 mV, and entrapped 94.48± 4.54 % of GCB. Furthermore, the GCB cubosomes demonstrated significantly (p < 0.01) higher in vitro cytotoxic and apoptotic activity against breast cancer (MCF-7) cells after 48 hr of incubation. Hence, the developed GCB cubosomes can be used as a competent alternative to systemic chemotherapy in the effective management of breast cancer.