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CYTOTOXICITY ASSESSMENT OF LIPOSOMES LOADED WITH BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES ON ORAL TUMOUR CELLS

DENISA PREDUT 1#, ALEXANDRA DENISA SEMENESCU 3,4#, ANIKO MANEA 5*, STEFANIA DINU 1, RAMONA POPOVICI 1, ANCA JIVANESCU 1,2

1Faculty of Dental Medicine, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041, Timișoara, Romania
2Research Centre of Digital and Advanced Technique for Endodontic, Restorative and Prosthetic Treatment (TADERP), 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041, Timișoara, Romania
3Faculty of Pharmacy, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timișoara, 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041, Timișoara, Romania
4Research Centre for Pharmaco-Toxicological Evaluations, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timișoara, 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041, Timișoara, Romania
5Faculty of Medicine, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timișoara, 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041, Timișoara, Romania

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Lately, the scientific world has turned its attention to oral pathologies, observing the contribution of the health of the oral cavity to the general condition of the body. One of the most well-known diseases, oral carcinoma, is ranked worldwide as the sixth type of cancer in terms of frequency, and in Romania according to the 2020 statistics, it is on the 3rd place. The treatment generally consists in the administration of chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or surgical interventions, but these attract numerous adverse effects. Therefore, knowing the effectiveness of active principles extracted from plants in various pathologies, our research group wanted to incorporate betulin into liposomes to remove the inconveniences due to synthetic therapy. Likewise, encapsulation improves the solubility of the phytocompound. Morphological analysis revealed that the liposome-betulin system changes cell shape and confluence, the most visible effect being observed at 10 μM. MTT assay was performed to determine cell proliferation. Our results confirmed the activity of the liposome-betulin complex to inhibit cell viability from 75% at the lowest concentration (1 μM) to 29% at the highest concentration tested (10 μM). While betulin at 10 μM recorded a viability value of approximately 65%. In addition, the Hoechst assay established a dose-dependent tendency of betulin, and especially betulin incorporated into liposomes, to change shape and fragment cell nuclei.