Ghee Butter as a Therapeutic Delivery System.

Solid lipid nanoparticles carrying a chemotherapeutic payload (i.e., temozolomide, TMZ) were synthesized using ghee, a clarified butter commonly used in traditional medicine and food products. Ghee solid lipid nanoparticles (GSLN) were characterized through dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and UV-visible spectrometry. Formulations were generated with varying ratios of surfactant to lipid, resulting in a maximum TMZ entrapment efficiency of ∼70%. Optimal formulations were found to have an average size and polydispersity of ∼220 nm and 0.340, respectively. Release kinetics revealed TMZ-loaded GSLN (TMZ@GSLN) retained 10% of its payload at 2 h with ∼53% released in 5 h. Metabolic activity on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) revealed GSLN treatment resulted in an increase in viability following 3 d while treatment of glioblastoma LN-229 cells with TMZ@GSLN resulted in a significant decrease. Evaluation of diffusion of TMZ across a reconstructed HUVEC monolayer demonstrated TMZ@GSLN resulted in a significantly higher diffusion of drug when compared to free TMZ. This data suggests GSLN pose a promising delivery vehicle for TMZ-based therapeutics. Collectively, this data demonstrates GSLN exhibit favorable drug carrier properties with anti-proliferative properties in glioblastoma cancer cells.