Synthesis and characterisation of liposomal doxorubicin with loaded gold nanoparticles

Developing nanostructures for cancer treatment is growing significantly. Liposomal doxorubicin is a drug that is used in the clinic and represents a lot of benefits over doxorubicin. The development of multifunctional liposomes with different cancer treatment capability enables broader applications of doxorubicin chemotherapy. Many efforts were carried to prepare more effective liposomal formulation through loading gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in the formulation. Here, GNPs with an average size of 6 nm were loaded in liposomal formulation alongside doxorubicin. The hydrodynamic diameter of final formulation was 177.3 ± 33.9 nm that in comparison with liposomes without GNPs (112.5 ± 10.3 nm), GNPs-loaded liposomes showed the bigger hydrodynamic diameter. GNPs-loaded liposomes are slightly positively charged (4.4 ± 1.1 mV), while liposomes without loading the GNPs were negatively charged (-18.5 ± 1.6 mV). Doxorubicin was loaded in this formulation through active loading technique. Doxorubicin loading efficiency in gold-loaded liposomes is slightly lesser than liposomes without GNPs, but still considerably high in comparison to passive loading techniques. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018