Abstract
Lectins are the oligomeric sugar-specific glycoprotein of nonimmune origin, are involved in the multiple biological recognition process, and have the capacity to perform a wide variety of physiological functions including antifungal, antiviral, antitumor, and cell agglutination. The main objective of the current study was to prepare lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles via ionic gelation methods with different CS/TPP ratios and to investigate anticancer potential against HepG2 cells. The best ratio showed the mean particle size (298.10 ± 1.9 nm, 21.05 ± 0.95 mv) with optimal encapsulation efficiencies of 52.435 ± 0.09%. The cytotoxicity was evaluated against HepG2 cells, and IC50 values obtained were 265 μg/ml for lectin protein and 105 μg/ml for lectin-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles, respectively. The mRNA expression of proliferation markers like GPC3 was significantly decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) during lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticle treatment. Apoptotic genes that indicating a marked increase in expression are Caspase 3, p53, and Bax, while Bcl2 and AFP showed a downregulation of expression after treatment of HepG2 cells with lectin-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles. The preliminary findings of our study highlighted that lectin protein-loaded chitosan-TPP nanoparticles could be a promising anticancer agent.