CuS@BSA-NB2 Nanoparticles for HER2-Targeted Photothermal Therapy

• Published in: Frontiers in pharmacology Vol. 12; p. 779591
• Main Authors: Ying, Ming, Li, Qin, Wu, Jingbo, Jiang, Yihang, Xu, Zhourui, Ma, Mingze, Xu, Gaixia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 21.01.2022
• Subjects: CuS@BSA-NB2 nanoparticles; HER2; MDA-MB-231/HER2; NB2; Pharmacology; photothermal therapy; CuS@BSA-NB2 nanoparticles; MDA-MB-231/HER2; HER2; photothermal therapy; NB2
• ISSN: 1663-9812; 1663-9812
• DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.779591

Breast cancer is characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of breast epithelial cells under the action of a variety of carcinogens. Although HER2-inhibitors were currently applied for HER2-positive breast cancer patients, they didn’t work for patients with resistance to HER2-targeted anti-cancer drugs. In this work, we prepared novel CuS@BSA-NB2 nanoparticles (NPs) for breast cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). The NPs had good biocompatibility due to the Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) encapsulating and excellent targeting to HER2 because of nanobody 2 (NB2). Under 808 nm laser irradiation, CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had high photothermal conversion efficiency and photothermal stability. Meanwhile, we constructed a stable cell line of MDA-MB-231/HER2 with a high expression of HER2 protein. Immunofluorescence and ICP-MS assays showed that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs can be specifically enriched and be ingested in MDA-MB-231/HER2 cells. Furthermore, CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had shown a more significant photothermal treatment effect than CuS@BSA under certain treatment conditions for MDA-MB-231/HER2. In addition, the cytotoxicity assay demonstrated that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had a low toxicity for MDA-MB-231/HER2 cells. The above results suggested that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs were great photothermal therapeutic agents to reduce the malignant proliferation of breast epithelial cells and have potential for breast cancer therapy.