Paclitaxel loaded niosome nanoparticle formulation prepared via reverse phase evaporation method: an in vitro evaluation.

Niosoms are nanoparticles used in drug delivery systems. Niosomes are prepared by various methods. In this research niosoms were prepared by reverse phase evaporation and the factors affecting the niosomes formation were studied. Percent of paclitaxel pegylated and non-pegylated prepared with Span 60 were 95 and 92, respectively while for those of pegylated and non-pegylated niosomes with Span 20, 94 and 90, respectively. In addition, the average diameters of pegylated and no-pegylated prepared with Span 60 and 20 were determined to be 191, 214, 244 and 284 nm, respectively. The amount of released drug (48 h) from pegylated and non pegylated formulations in the presence of Spans 60 and 20 were 8, 10, 6, 7%, respectively. Cytotoxicities ofpaclitaxel niosom polyethyleneglycol, paclitaxel niosome and free paclitaxel on MCF-7 cell line after 48 hours were studied by MTT assay. The results showed the formulation prepared with Span 60 is more effective than that of Span 20 and the IC50 of the former was decreased twice while IC50 of the later decreased 1.5 times.