Figure 6.

Antiproliferative activity of free TQ and the optimized TQ NP formulation F2-NC in (A) MCF-7, (B) PANC-1, and (C) Caco-2 human cancer cell lines, as well as (D) human dermal fibroblasts serving as a model normal cell line. Cells were incubated with various concentrations of TQ in its free or NP form in complete media for 72 h. Cell viability was measured via a sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay and expressed relative to untreated controls. TQ and F2-NC exhibited dose-dependent cytotoxicity with micromolar potencies across all cancer cell lines. Although free TQ was more potent than F2-NC, the latter was significantly less toxic to fibroblasts and was associated with a greater selectivity index.