Preparation and Nanoencapsulation of Lectin from <i>Lepidium sativum</i> on Chitosan‐Tripolyphosphate Nanoparticle and Their Cytotoxicity against Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells (HepG2)

Abstract

Lectins are the oligomeric sugar-specific glycoprotein of nonimmune origin, are involved in the multiple biological recognition process, and have the capacity to perform a wide variety of physiological functions including antifungal, antiviral, antitumor, and cell agglutination. The main objective of the current study was to prepare lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles via ionic gelation methods with different CS/TPP ratios and to investigate anticancer potential against HepG2 cells. The best ratio showed the mean particle size (298.10 ± 1.9 nm, 21.05 ± 0.95 mv) with optimal encapsulation efficiencies of 52.435 ± 0.09%. The cytotoxicity was evaluated against HepG2 cells, and IC₅₀ values obtained were 265 <i>μ</i>g/ml for lectin protein and 105 <i>μ</i>g/ml for lectin-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles, respectively. The mRNA expression of proliferation markers like <i>GPC3</i> was significantly decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) during lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticle treatment. Apoptotic genes that indicating a marked increase in expression are <i>Caspase 3</i>, <i>p53</i>, and <i>Bax</i>, while <i>Bcl2</i> and <i>AFP</i> showed a downregulation of expression after treatment of HepG2 cells with lectin-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles. The preliminary findings of our study highlighted that lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles could be a promising anticancer agent.