Antitumoral and toxicological potential of solamargine functionalized with yttrium vanadate nanoparticles

Abstract

Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals for cancer treatment, however the side effects and drug resistance are well known problems in cancer therapy. These facts combined with cancer complexity, due to various genetic abnormalities, become an obstacle to the treatment of this disease. Thus, it is necessary the research and development of more effective drugs for cancer chemotherapy. The association with nanoparticles is an alternative to direct the drug to its action site, slowing the delivery of active molecules in the body and thus reduce systemic toxicity. Solamargine is the majority compound isolated from fruit of Solanum lycocarpum and has shown promising antitumor potential. In vitro studies have shown that solamargine was cytotoxic to cell lines of human colon carcinoma (HT29), human hepatoma (HepG2 and Hep3B) and breast cancer (HBL-100, ZR-75-1 and SK-BR-3). Additionally, a mixture of solasodines glycosylated, having the solamargine as the main component, reduced significantly non melanomic skin tumors in human when administered by intralesion injection. In order to increase the antitumor efficiency of solamargine and concomitantly reduce its cytotoxicity in normal cells, this study aims to evaluate the antitumor effect of solamargine functionalized with nanoparticles of yttrium vanadate on murine melanoma in C57BL/6 mice. Still, this study aims to evaluate the effects of this compound in different tissues for histopathologic, biochemistry and hematology analysis. To better understand the action mechanisms of functionalized solamargine in nanoparticles, will be also evaluated their genotoxicity potential by the comet assay in hepatocytes. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the action of solamargine, providing a more effective and safe use in future clinical applications. (AU)