Chemoprevention of Breast Cancer Using Nanoencapsulated Resveratrol

Breast cancer is the second common cancer in women in the United States. Being second only to cancer of the skin, it accounts for one out of every four cancer cases diagnosed in the United States. Many natural compounds show promise to prevent this serious illness, but their low level of solubility, stability, and bioavailability in the body makes administering them in therapeutic doses unrealistic. This is particularly true for resveratrol, a natural polyphenol found in grapes and red wine, that is valuable for the prevention of breast cancer. The purpose of this project is to synthesize resveratrol encapsulated nanostructured lipid carriers (R-NLC) to increase its level of solubility, stability, and bioavailability to breast cancer cells, with the goal of preventing breast cancer development. We have successfully synthesized R-NLC in our laboratory. The mean size is about 38 nm in diameter. NLC significantly increase the solubility of resveratrol in physiological saline. We also measured the viability of MCF7 breast cancer cells using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Compared to native resveratrol, the nanoencapsulated resveratrol (R-NLC) decreased the viability of MCF-7cells at 10µM after 24 hours. The results suggest that R-NLC have more beneficial effect on breast cancer prevention than native resveratrol. We will further determine the stability and cellular bioavailability of R-NLC in breast cancer cells. This study could serve as a basis for the use of biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticle-mediated delivery systems to increase bioavailability, solubility, stability and payload of chemopreventive agents, such as resveratrol.