Abstract 829: Evaluation of SK-N-DZ CLENs as a potential drug delivery system for selective targeting of neuroblastoma cells
Authors: Bumanglag Kevin , Tran Thi , Campbell Robert , Li Yishan 
Published: April 2023

Background: Neuroblastoma (NB) is a malignancy of the neuroendocrine system affecting infants. NB is highly resistant to drug therapy, which leads to ineffective treatments and increased refractory. Current treatments have low specificity to targeted NB cells resulting in unwanted side effects. A drug delivery system that can overcome these problems is urgently needed. Incorporating drugs in optimized lipid nanoparticles such as liposomes have proven to be an effective method for drug targeting. To achieve better cellular selectivity, lipid membrane extract (LE) is derived from NB cells using a modified Dyer and Blight lipid extraction procedure. The objective of the study was to determine an optimized cell membrane lipid-extracted nanoliposomes (CLENs) for the NB cell model while considering physicochemical properties (i.e. size and molecular charge) and composition of the preparation.

Methods: The neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-DZ, was used for drug selectivity study. Expanded culture of SK-N-DZ was employed for cellular extraction purposes. The method for lipid membrane extraction was previously reported by Alharbi and Campbell, (AAPS Open 4,5(2018)). SK-N-DZ lipid extract was the main ingredient to prepare SK-N-DZ CLENs. Phase I of the study is to prepare CLENs with various compositions of DOPC, cholesterol, DPPE-PEG5000 and SK-N-DZ lipid extract. DPPE-Rhodamine was used for fluorescence and cellular uptake studies. Phase II of the study evaluated the effect of SK-N-DZ lipid extraction inclusion on drug incorporation, cellular uptake and selectivity, and cytotoxicity. Invitrogen alamarBlue HS in vitro assay was used to determine cell viability for cytotoxicity studies. SK-N-SH (brain tissue), BT-20 (breast tissue) and G401 (kidney tissue) cell lines served as negative controls.

Results: The results from the cellular uptake optimization studies revealed that the optimized composition and ratio for SK-N-DZ CLENs was DOPC/Cholesterol/LE/PEG (65/10/20/5). The average particle size and value for zeta potential was 164 nm +/- 1.2 and -7.92 +/- 1.55 mV, respectively. The inclusion of SK-N-DZ lipid membrane extract (2, 10, 20 and 40 mol%) in preparation of CLENs increased cellular uptake by SK-N-DZ cells compared to corresponding control (no LE included). No difference observed in cellular uptake of preparations containing 20 and 40 mol% of LE. The additional inclusion of cholesterol (10, 20, 40 mol%) increased overall cellular uptake of preparations compared to CLENs without the additional cholesterol content. Overall, the inclusion of PEG (5, 10, and 20 mol%) in SK-N-DZ CLENs increased their uptake by the target cell population.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the inclusion of SK-N-DZ lipid membrane extract in the nanoliposome preparations increased their overall cellular uptake by SK-N-DZ target cells. Additional cellular selectively and cytotoxicity studies are currently underway.

Citation Format: Kevin Bumanglag, Thi Tran, Robert Campbell, Yishan Li. Evaluation of SK-N-DZ CLENs as a potential drug delivery system for selective targeting of neuroblastoma cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 829.