¹Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ege University, İzmir, Turkey
²Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, İzmir Katip Çelebi University, İzmir, Turkey DOI : 10.12991/mpj.2018.67 In this study, we aimed to develop a novel positive charged nucleic acid delivery system for the treatment of glioblastoma. For this purpose, Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) which plays a prominent role in glioblastoma was selected as a target. Cationic solid lipid nanoparticles (cSLN) were developed by microemulsion dilution method using cetyl palmitate as matrix lipid, Cremephor RH40 and Peceol as surfactants, and ethanol as co-surfactant. Characterization studies showed that obtained nanoparticles are positively charged and has an appropriate particle size for nucleic acid delivery (<20 nm). Gel retardation assay revealed that cSLNs have complexation ability with siRNA EGFR (cSLN:siRNAEGFR) and this complex is able to protect siRNA from serum‐mediated degradation up to 6 h. The cytotoxicity evaluation of nanoparticles performed on U87 Human Glioblastoma Cell Line. Furthermore, in vitro delivery of siRNA-EGFR via cSLN inhibited EGFR expression significantly at 50nM siRNA dose compared to free siRNA-EGFR at the same dose on U87 cell line (p<0.05). Based on these findings, we propose that the developed cSLN system may has a potential as a siRNA delivery system for glioblastoma. Keywords : Glioblastoma ; solid lipid nanoparticle ; siRNA ; gene delivery ; EGFR