An icaritin-loaded microemulsion based on coix oil for improved pharmacokinetics and enhanced antitumor efficacy.

ABSTRACT: Combinational icaritin (IC) and coix seed oil (CSO) holds promising potential in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. However, traditional cocktail therapy is facing difficulties to optimize the synergistic antitumor efficacy due to the asynchronous pharmacokinetics. Therefore, we developed an icaritin-loaded microemulsion based on coix seed oil (IC-MEs) for improved pharmacokinetics and enhanced antitumor efficacy. The preparation technology of IC-MEs was optimized by the Box-Behnken design and the pharmaceutical properties were characterized in detail. IC-MEs show synergistic antiproliferation against HepG2 cells compared with monotherapy. The mechanism is associated with stronger apoptosis induction via enhancing caspases-3 activity. IC-MEs significantly improve the bioavailabilit

SUBMITTER: Zeng H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9848417 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature