Laser biospeckle contrast measurements stimulated from liposomal nanocarriers incubated in vitro model cancer cells: A proven promising tool in clinical therapy

Abstract

This work aimed to apply a simple method to evaluate the effect of anticancer drugs’ treatment on in vitro models of cancer cells by laser biospeckle pattern measurements. Thus, the study is concerned with the detection of reduced dosage required for targeting tumors by drug combination encapsulated in liposomal nanoparticles using biospeckle measurements. The curcumin drug encapsulated in liposomal nanoparticles was applied to target the MCF-7 breast cancer cells and HepG2 liver cancer cells on slides as biospecimens with different concentrations for both cancer cell models, separately. For each cancer cell model under treatment, a simple way is to access this information, as the surfaces of biosample were illuminated by a coherent laser beam of green wavelengths of 532.0 nm with output power < 50 mW. The random interference effects were produced, which are known as biospeckle patterns. These speckle patterns were imaged for biosamples of the cancer cells under test treatment for each liposomal drug concentration, digitally. Then, laser biospeckle contrast measurements were used along with an image processing program to detect the change in speckle patterns due to the change in cancer cell size, cancer cell density, and bioavailability, which correlated to the various liposomal curcumin concentrations. First, the obtained results emphasized that the polydispersity index has an acceptable value lower than 0.7 for the effective clinical applications of the used nanocarrier liposome formulations presented in this study. Second, the study pointed to the laser biospeckle technique as a useful method to evaluate intensity and contrast measurements, which correspond to a safe use of the liposomal curcumin drug at a suitable concentration and an acceptable cytotoxicity.