Table 3.

In vitro and in vivo assessment of the therapeutic potential of different NLCs in melanoma models.

Nanosystem Composition	Compound(s)	Model(s)	Summary of Experimental Assays and Conditions	Main Conclusions	Reference
Precirol ATO 5, OA and tween 80	LEM2	In vitro: human A375 cell line	Cell viability assays: SRB (0.010 to 5 μM) and trypan blue (1 and 2 μM) DNA damage assay: cell cycle arrest (PI) (1 and 2 μM)	LEM2-loaded NLCs potentiate in vitro cell death of cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, increasing the percentage of cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase.	[130]
Stearic acid, GMS, SLT, OA and pluronic F68	DTX	In vitro: murine B16 cell line	Cell viability assay: MTT (0.01 to 10 μM)	In vitro and in vivo assays demonstrated the greatest antitumor efficacy of DTX NLCs. In addition, lower in vivo side effects were achieved compared to duopafei.	[131]
		In vivo: female Kunming mice; s.c. injection of B16 cells	i.v. injection of duopafei (10 mg/kg) and DTX NLCs (10 and 20 mg/kg)
Stearylamine, IPM, SLT, TPGS and pluronic F68	Tripterine	In vitro: murine B16BL6 cell line	Cell viability assay: MTT (2 to 10 μg/mL) Cell uptake assay: HPLC	Cationic NLCs exhibited greater antitumor activity compared to neutral or anionic ones.	[132]
		In vivo: male C57BL/6 mice; s.c. injection of B16BL6 cells	Topical administration of compound solution, neutral, anionic and cationic NLCs (6 mg/kg) and i.p. injection of CTX as positive control (20 mg/kg)

Abbreviations: CTX, cyclophosphamide; DLS, dynamic light scattering; DTIC, dacarbazine; DTX, docetaxel; GMS, glycerol monostearate; HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography; i.p., intraperitoneal; IPM, isopropyl myristate; i.v., intravenous; LEM2, carbaldehyde dimethoxyxanthone; MTT, dimethylthiazol diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; NLC, nanostructured lipid carrier; OA, oleic acid; PI, propidium iodide; s.c., subcutaneous; SLT, soybean lecithin; SRB, sulphorodamine B; TPGS, D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate.