An evaluation of anti-tumor effect and toxicity of PEGylated ursolic acid liposomes

Therapy of solid tumors mediated by nano-drug delivery has attracted considerable interest. In our previous study, ursolic acid (UA) was successfully encapsulated into PEGylated liposomes. The study aimed to evaluate the tumor inhibition effect and cytotoxicity of the PEGylated UA liposomes by U14 cervical carcinoma-bearing mice. The liposomes were spherical particles with mean particle diameters of 127.2 nm. The tumor inhibition rate of PEGylated UA liposomes was 53.60 % on U14 cervical carcinoma-bearing mice, which was greater than those of the UA solution (18.25 %) and traditional UA liposome groups (40.75 %). The tumor cells apoptosis rate of PEGylated UA liposomes was 25.81 %, which was significantly higher than that of the traditional UA liposomes (13.37 %). Moreover, the kidney and liver did not emerge the pathological changes in UA therapeutic mice by histopathological analysis, while there were significant differences on tumor tissues among three UA formulation groups. The PEGylated UA liposomes exhibited higher anti-tumor activity and lower cytotoxicity, and the main reason was that the coating PEG layer improved UA liposome properties, such as enhancing the stability of liposomes, promoting the effect of slow release, and prolonging the time of blood circulation. This may shed light on the development of PEGylated nano-vehicles.