In Vitro Efficacy Studies for Evaluating the Activity of a Self-Assembled Nanoemulsion Formulation of Paclitaxel on Breast and Ovarian Cancer Cells

The drug of choice for treating breast and ovarian cancers is usually paclitaxel. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a self-assembled nanoemulsion (SANE) of paclitaxel (NFP) on human breast (MCF-7) and ovarian (OVCAR-3) cancer cell lines. Cells were treated with various doses (1.2 nM-1200 nM of paclitaxel) as the NFP or suspended in DMSO (PSD). While both significantly inhibited cell proliferation of MCF-7 at doses >40 nM, at 12 nM the NFP significantly inhibited cell proliferation (-57%; p < 0.05) greater than the PSD (-5%). With OVCAR-3 cells, doses>12 nM for both significantly inhibited cell proliferation, but at 4 nM, the NFP significantly inhibited cell proliferation (-60%; p < 0.05) greater than the PSD (-23%). These results demonstrate that the effect of NFP on the cell proliferation of MCF-7 and OVCAR-3 cells are significantly greater at a lower dose than the PSD and that the NFP exhibited similar mode of action by induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest as the PSD. Therefore a SANE formulation of Paclitaxel has the potential to be a promising delivery system for anti-cancer drugs.