IN VITRO CYTOTOXICITY EVALUATION OF ESCITALOPRAM LOADED NANOPARTICLES AFTER EXPOSURE TO NEUROBLASTOMA CELL LINES

The aim of the present studies is to evaluate the cytotoxic effects of newly formulated polymeric nanoparticles (ETP NP’s) of Escitalopram oxalate (ETP) on NB41A3 cell lines. They were made by ionic gelation method with particle size range between 60 – 115nm, showing spherical morphology. Moreover, zeta potential of the same was recorded as -1.89 ± 0.052 mV and its permeability release showed 98.45 ± 1.82 % in 24 hour. The cytotoxicity evaluation of the optimized formulation (A3) included qualitative method of cell morphology (microscopic and DAPI staining evaluation) and quantitative colorimetric assays like – neutral red (NRU), MTT and LDH. The results suggested that, in presence of ETP, there was a remarkable decrease in cell count whereas; ETP NP’s showed lesser cytotoxicity.  performed. Further, in NRU membrane integrity was assessed and it showed 95.2 ± 0.83 % and 72.2 ± 0.56% of cell viability in ETP NP’s and ETP pure respectively. However, MTT assay summed up the cell viability up to 93.6 ± 0.68 % in ETP NP’s in comparison to 88.2 ± 0.35 % of ETP pure and LDH assay results for both , ETP NP’s (5.105 unit/ml) and ETP pure  (5.779 units/ml) suggested  that the cell viability is more dose and incubation time dependent. These results confirms the efficacy and non toxicity of formulated ETP NP’s and thus, it can be further applied to in vivo model to study its various pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters to establish its therapeutic potentials completely.