ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the therapeutic effects of Quercetin (QT)-loaded PLGA-TPGS nanoparticles (QPTN) on solid tumor-bearing mice with HCa-F hepatocarcinoma in vivo.Methods The model of HCa-F hepatocarcinoma solid tumor-bearing mice was established by implanting HCa-F cells into 48 mice.The mice were divided into 6 groups randomly:the negative control,empty PLGA-TPGS nanoparticles,5-Fluorouracil solutions (FS),Quercetin solutions (QTS),QT-loaded PLGA nanoparticles (QPN),and QPTN groups.Each group was treated using tail vein twice a day for 20 days;then,all mice were sacrificed.The increment tumor volumes and tumor growth inhibition rate were counted.Then,tumor specimens were prepared for hematoxylin & eosin (HE) staining and observed under a microscope.Results The results showed that the increment tumor volumes of mice in the QPTN,QPN,and FS groups were significantly smaller than that in the negative control group (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).The tumor growth inhibition rate of the QPTN group was 59.07％,which was much higher than that of the QTS group (23.94％),the FS group (35.14％),and the QPN group (46.14％).The results of the HE staining on the tumor sections also indicated that the QPTN group showed a better therapeutic outcome compared to the other groups.Conclusion The QPTN has a better therapeutic effect on the model of solid tumor using HCa-F cells-bearing mice than the QPN,QTS,and FS.