Effective antiproliferative effect of meloxicam on prostate cancer cells: Development of a new controlled release system

Recent studies have shown that COX-2 inhibitors, such as meloxicam, have demonstrated promising results when used with chemotherapy. Based on these findings, this is the first study in which the antiproliferative effect of meloxicam is investigated on two prostate cancer cell lines (PC3 and DU-145). We have also evaluated if this antiproliferative effect is dose- and/or time-dependent. Meloxicam is assayed at a concentration range of 10–800 μM for 24, 48 and 72 h. Our results reveal that meloxicam has a selective dose- and time-dependent antiproliferative effect against PC3 but not against DU-145 cells. In PC3 cells the IC50 decreased from 740 μM at 24 h to 515 μM at 72 h after meloxicam treatment. Chemoembolization based on microspheres has been emerged as a novel and promising way for antitumoural therapy; therefore, in our study we have developed and characterized a new controlled release system consisting of biodegradable PLGA/PEG-derivative meloxicam microspheres. The optimized formulation has a mean particle size of 13.06 ± 0.09 μm, mean encapsulation efficiency of 58.44 ± 4.53% and releases 0.45 ± 0.05 μg meloxicam/day/mg microspheres between days 3 and 28 of the in vitro release assay. In conclusion, we should consider meloxicam as a possible adjuvant agent in the treatment of prostate cancer.