Modeling and prediction of cytotoxicity of artemisinin for treatment of the breast cancer by using artificial neural networks

Abstract

While artemisinin is known as anticancer medication with favorable remedial effects, its side effects must not be neglected. In order to reduce such side effects and increase artemisinin therapeutic index, nano technology has been considered as a new approach. Liposome preparation is supposed to be one of the new methods of drug delivery. To prepare the desired nanoliposome, certain proportions of phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol and artemisinin are mixed together. Besides, in order to achieve more stability, the formulation was pegylated by polyethylene glycol 2000 (PEG 2000). Mean diameter of nanoliposomes was determined by means of Zeta sizer. Encapsulation was calculated 96.02% in nanoliposomal and 91.62% in pegylated formulation. Compared to pegylated formulation, the percent of released drug in nanoliposomal formulation was more. In addition, this study reveals that cytotoxicity effect of pegylated nanoliposomal artemisinin was more than nanoliposomal artemisinin. Since artificial neural network shows high possibility of nonlinear modulation, it is used to predict cytotoxicity effect in this study, which can precisely indicate the cytotoxicity and IC50 of anticancer drugs. © 2013 Qaderi et al.