Cellular uptake and anticancer activity of salvianolic acid B phospholipid complex loaded nanoparticles in head and neck cancer and precancer cells

[Display omitted] •Salvianolic acid B (SalB) was a promising chemopreventive agent for HNSCC.•SalB nanoformulation (nano-SalB) for nanochemoprevention of HNSCC was proposed.•Nano-SalB significantly enhanced cellular uptake of drug as against free-SalB.•Nano-SalB were significantly more potent anticancer effect against HNSCC cells.•The current study may pave a new way for the development of drugs that target HNSCC. Salvianolic acid B (SalB) was demonstrated to be a promising chemopreventive agent for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in the previous studies by our and other research institution, but the properties like low efficacy, poor systemic delivery, and low bioavailability has hampered its clinical applications. To continue our research program focused on the use of natural compounds on cancer chemoprevention, we propose a first example of phospholipid complex loaded nanoparticles (PLC-NPs) encapsulating SalB as a potential carrier for intervention of HNSCC (HN13, HN30) cells and precancer Leuk1 cells in this study. Qualitative and quantitive studies of cellular uptake showed that intracellular accumulation of SalB was significantly higher when HN13, HN30 and Leuk1 cells were incubated with SalB-PLC-NPs complex (nano-SalB) as against free-SalB. Cell viability assay revealed that the cell growth of HN13 and HN30 cells was significantly inhibited of 56.1% and 29.3%, respectively, for nano-SalB compared to an equivalent amount of free-SalB (P