Background: In today’s world, nanomedicine-based therapeutics are used to treat breast cancer as the leading cause of death in females. Etoposide (ETO) is used in treatment of many malignancies including breast cancer, but its hydrophobicity cause hinderance to achieve high drug loading. Niosomes are novel drug delivery systems forms by self-assembly of nonionic amphiphiles in aqueous media. The aim of present study was to develop a drug delivery system based on niosome to encapsulate the ETO and investigate the safety and effectiveness of the newly developed system. Methods: Introduced niosome has been prepared by thin layer hydration method. Particle size and zeta potential were evaluated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), and drug release rate from the system was investigated in vitro. Safety of the DDS and its gradient was checked using bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and red blood cells (RBC). MDA-MB-231 cell line was used to check the DDS+ DXR and CXR only. Results: The newly formulated Niosome system NI showed excellent stability for up to 3 months at 4 ◦C. The particle size was reported to be approximately 399.37 nm and its poly dispersity index (PDI) was 0.4 . In addition, the drug loading rate was 89% and the releasing percentage of the drug after 24 h through mouse skin and dialysis membrane was obtained as 37 and 52 %, respectively. The half maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) of the drug for 48 and 72 hours of treatment was calculated to be 33.26 and 31.49 μg/ml respectively. Conclusion: The newly developed NI-ETO system is suitable drug delivery system based on its high drug carrier capacity, releasing rate and its medicine safety.
