Facile preparation of hyaluronic acid-based quercetin nanoformulation for targeted tumor therapy

[Display omitted] •No chemical agents or surfactants are involved in the preparation process.•Simple synthesis and low cost make QUT/HA-NF a good clinical application potential.•The nanoformulation can be targeted to tumor cells via CD44 receptor mediation. In this study, a novel hyaluronic acid-based quercetin nanoformulation (QUT/HA-NF) was constructed for targeted tumor therapy. QUT/HA-NFs have the advantages of simple operation steps, low production cost and good industrialization prospects. Moreover, surfactants, solvents and chemicals are not involved in the preparation process, which avoid the cumbersome extraction of surfactants and the side effects caused by residual solvents or chemicals. The QUT/HA-NFs we prepared have small particle size and high drug loading. In vitro studies have shown that QUT/HA-NFs can significantly enhance tumor cell uptake and tumor cell killing through CD44 receptor mediation. In a xenograft mouse model of 4T1 tumor, QUT/HA-NFs showed stronger inhibition of tumor growth compared with quercetin alone. The QUT/HA-NFs proposed in this study are expected to provide a potential candidate for the treatment of tumors.