preparation and characterization of a chitosan-basednanoformulation containing prangos acaulis extract and evaluation of its effect on the viability of ht-29 and mcf-7 cancer cells

Background: utilizing the advantages of biocompatible nanoparticles, such as chitosan, can enhance the bioactivity and bioavailability of phytochemicals with medicinal effects, particularly anticancer phytocompounds. objectives: in this study, the effect of a chitosan-based nano-formulation on the cytotoxicity of the methanolic extract of prangos acaulis was evaluated against ht-29 and mcf-7 cell lines. methods: for this purpose, the methanol extract of p. acaulis was loaded into chitosan nanoparticles (chitosan-nps) during the ionic gelation process using tripolyphosphate (tpp) as a cross-linker. the synthesized nanoparticles, after separation from the unloaded free extract and freeze-drying, were characterized in terms of appearance, morphology, average hydrodynamic diameter, average surface charge, and the presence of specific absorption peaks using field-emission scanning electron microscope (fesem), dls, zeta potential, and fourier transform infrared (ft-ir) analysis, respectively. results: the results showed that the efficiency of the extract loading process was 88.5%, and the produced nanoparticles had a semi-spherical to amorphous appearance with a loading capacity (lc) of 54.2%, an average hydrodynamic diameter of 79.8 ± 4.5 nm, and a positive surface charge of +48.4 mv. additionally, it was found that the release of the extract from the nanoparticles followed a sustained release pattern and caused cytotoxicity against the studied cell lines at lower concentrations compared to the free extract.conclusions: according to the obtained results, the chitosan-based nano-formulation of the investigated extract possesses the necessary and appropriate characteristics for further in vitro and in vivo investigations of its anticancer potential.