Essential Oils-Based Nanodelivery System for Phytochemical-Rich Bauhinia Alba Extract: Enhanced Anticancer Efficacy against MCF7 Cell Line and Ehrlich Ascites-Bearing Animal Model

Breast cancer (BC) is an extremely severe malignancy in women. This study aims to explore a newly developed nanoparticles formulation (BA-LNCs) for treatment of BC by utilizing the phytochemical-rich Bauhinia Alba (BA) extract and the natural therapeutic potential of lavender and tea tree essential oils, which are renowned for their ability to combat cancer and oxidative stress. The study examined the BA-LNCs' bioavailability and anticancer activity in-vivo in addition to assessing their effectiveness in-vitro on the MCF-7 cells. The anticancer ability was compared to that of free BA and plain nanocarriers (NCs) using Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) animal model. The prepared nanoparticles depicted colloidal stability for more than 6 months. They showed particle sizes of 16.84±3.10 nm to 51.53±3.62 nm, and PDI below 0.4, demonstrating the uniformity of the size dispersion. Plain NCs and BA-LNCs demonstrated surface charges of -18.7±2.0 and -34.5±0.0 mV, respectively. TEM micrographs showed a spherical morphology of the plain NCs and BA-LNCs. The MTT assay of BA-LNCs showed an effective IC50 value of 2.22±0.36 µg/ml compared to the plain NCs and free BA values of 33.92±3.26 and 36.88±3.09 µg/ml, respectively. The developed BA-LNCs depicted improved bioavailability and antiproliferative effectiveness in-vivo. They also showed encouraging outcomes for P-38 MAPK and cyclin D1 as biomarkers and SOD and MDA as cancer biological parameters. Large regions of necrosis and apoptosis were visible in the histopathological investigation, and the immunohistochemistry analysis verified that BA-LNCs are a successful nanodrug delivery system against BC.