O-carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles for metformin delivery to pancreatic cancer cells.

In this work we developed metformin loaded O-carboxymethyl chitosan (O-CMC) nanoparticles (NPs) by ionic-gelation method. The prepared NPs of 240 ± 50 nm size with spherical morphology exhibited a pH sensitive release of metformin in vitro. Cytotoxicity studies showed that the drug-incorporated NPs induced significant toxicity on pancreatic cancer cells (MiaPaCa-2) compared to normal cells (L929). Metformin loaded NPs exhibited nonspecific internalization by normal and pancreatic cancer cells; however metformin released from the NPs induced preferential toxicity on pancreatic cancer cells. Our preliminary studies suggested that such a novel approach could possibly overcome the current limitations of metformin in its clinical application against pancreatic cancer.