Nowadays, nanoparticle-based combination
therapy has been emerging as huge innovation in
cancer treatment. Here, we studied the effect of
Stattic (STAT3 inhibitor) loaded in nanostructured
lipid carriers (NLCs) on enhancing the efficacy, cytotoxicity, and induction of apoptosis of
doxorubicin in B16F10 mouse
melanoma cancer cell. The evaluation of
Stattic-loaded NLCs has been done in terms of zeta potential, particle size, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and cellular uptake. MTT assay was applied to evaluate the cell proliferation. Apoptotic cell death and identification of early and late apoptosis were assessed by
DAPI staining and
Annexin V/PI staining, respectively. Real-time RT-PCR was applied to measure the effects of
doxorubicin and/or
Stattic on key apoptotic genes such as Bad,
Survivin, HIF1, and STAT3. The
Stattic formulated into NLCs shown mean particle size of 56 ± 7 nm which was confirmed by SEM. The IC50 values for
Stattic and
doxorubicin were 2.95 ± 0.52 μM and 1.21 ± 0.36 μM, respectively.
Stattic-loaded NLCs diminished percent of cell proliferation from 68 ± 6.8 to 54 ± 3.7% (p < 0.05). Combinational treatment of the cells with
Stattic-loaded nanoparticles and
doxorubicin give rise to a significant increase in the percentage of apoptosis (p < 0.05). The study of gene expression profile has shown a remarkable decrease in anti-apoptotic gene,
Survivin, along with smooth decline in HIF1 as angiogenesis intermediator and increase in Bad
mRNA levels. Our results recommend that NLCs as novel technology have potent strategy to augment efficacy of current chemotherapeutic agent in
melanoma cancer cells.