Antitumor Efficacy of Docetaxel-loaded Nanocarrier against Esophageal Cancer Cell Bearing Mice Model.

Esophageal carcinoma is one of the most prevalent cancers with high rate of mortality worldwide. Intravenous and oral-based chemotherapeutic regimens were employed; however all the current treatment modalities are largely unsuccessful. Therefore the main aim of this work was to demonstrate the antitumor efficacy of docetaxel (DTX)-loaded trimethyl chitosan (TMC-DTX) against EC9701 esophageal squamous cancer cells. We showed a superior anti-proliferative activity for TMC-DTX against EC9701 cells upon incubation for 24, 48, and 72 h. Notably, nanoparticles effectively killed the cancer cells at longer incubation time which was consistent with the fact that much of the cells enter G2 and M phase at longer incubation at which DTX is most effective. Furthermore, Annexin V/PI based cell apoptosis study further confirmed the enhanced anticancer activity of DTX formulations. Cell-cycle analysis showed a substantial proportion of cells in subG0 and G2/M phase of cell arrest. Importantly, TMC-DTX showed a remarkable tumor regression profile in EC9701 tumor bearing mice. The intravenous administration significantly controlled/delayed the growth of tumor by comparison to free drug. Therefore TMC-DTX could a potential drug delivery system to enhance the chemotherapeutic efficacy in esophageal carcinoma.