Background: Niosomes or Nonionic surfactant vesicles are nano vehicles utilized in drug delivery systems, especially in cancer therapy. In this study, these vesicles were applied as delivery system for anticancer drug, paclitaxel and then, its anticancer activities was compared with free paclitaxel on Human Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) cell line Nalm-6.
Materialas and Methods: In this exprimental study, paclitaxel loaded niosome was prepared by thin film hydration method. The characterization tests included dynamic light scattering (DLS) and UV-Vis spectrophotometry were employed to evaluate the quality of the nanocarriers. Cytotoxicity of niosomal paclitaxel nanoparticles and free paclitaxel on human acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line Nalm-6 after 24 hours were studied by MTT assay to determine cell viability.
Results: Percent of encapsulation paclitaxel prepared with sorbitane monostearate, cholesterol, and DSPE-mPEG 2000 was 97.21 %. In addition, the polydispersity index, mean size diameter, and zeta potentials of niosomal paclitaxel nanoparticles were found to be 0.244 ± 0.011, 106.3 ± 1.5 nm, and -26.03 ± 1.34; respectively. Paclitaxel released from nanoniosome in 72 h was 19.81 %. The results demonstrated that a 2.5∼fold reduction in paclitaxel concentration was measured when the paclitaxel administered in nanoniosome compared to free paclitaxel solution in human acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line Nalm-6.
Conclusion: As a result, the nanoparticle-based formulation of paclitaxel has high potential as an adjuvant therapy for clinical usage in human acute lymphoblastic leukemia therapy.

Background: Due to the increase in cancer and side effects of common therapies, researchers are looking for treatments with the least side effects, which is why medicinal plants have become so important. Adiantum capillus-veneris L. plant commonly called southern maidenhair fern, and also named as “Pare-siavashan” in medical and pharmaceutical textbooks of Iranian Traditional Medicine, contains triterpenoid compounds that have anti-tumor properties. It is a perennial fern with narrow stems and small leaves that grows in hot and humid places. This study aims to make biocompatible nanosystems carrying Adiantum capillus-veneris extract with an appropriate loading rate and to compare the anti-tumor properties of the extract-carrying system with its free state.
Materials and Methods: After Extracting by Soxhlet, the resulting extract was loaded in the nano-niosome system by thin-film method and was subjected to physical, chemical, and cellular characterization.
Results: The results of this study showed that the loading rate of Adiantum capillus-veneris extract in niosomic formulation is 50.74% and the resulting particles are spherical with a size of 325.7nm and anionic. No chemical interactions were found between niosome and extract and the resulting system was chemically stable.
Conclusion: Based on acquired results, the designed system has acceptable anti-cancer properties on MCF7 cell line. It is notable that the cell survival rate was about 19 %.