Hyaluronic acid modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery to CD44-overexpressing cancer cells

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 178 - 183
• Main Authors: Yu, Meihua, Jambhrunkar, Siddharth, Thorn, Peter, Chen, Jiezhong, Gu, Wenyi, Yu, Chengzhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 07.01.2013
• Subjects: Absorption; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic - administration & dosage; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic - chemistry; Cancer; Cell Line, Tumor; Cellular; Colonic Neoplasms - drug therapy; Colonic Neoplasms - pathology; Diffusion; Doxorubicin - administration & dosage; Doxorubicin - chemistry; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; Humans; Hyaluronan Receptors - metabolism; Hyaluronic acid; Hyaluronic Acid - chemistry; Hydroxyapatite; Materials Testing; Nanocapsules - administration & dosage; Nanocapsules - chemistry; Nanocapsules - ultrastructure; Nanostructure; Porosity; Silicon dioxide; Silicon Dioxide - chemistry; Treatment Outcome; Up-Regulation
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c2nr32145a

In this paper, a targeted drug delivery system has been developed based on hyaluronic acid (HA) modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). HA-MSNs possess a specific affinity to CD44 over-expressed on the surface of a specific cancer cell line, HCT-116 (human colon cancer cells). The cellular uptake performance of fluorescently labelled MSNs with and without HA modification has been evaluated by confocal microscopy and fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis. Compared to bare MSNs, HA-MSNs exhibit a higher cellular uptake via HA receptor mediated endocytosis. An anticancer drug, doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox), has been loaded into MSNs and HA-MSNs as drug delivery vehicles. Dox loaded HA-MSNs show greater cytotoxicity to HCT-116 cells than free Dox and Dox-MSNs due to the enhanced cell internalization behavior of HA-MSNs. It is expected that HA-MSNs have a great potential in targeted delivery of anticancer drugs to CD44 over-expressing tumors. An anticancer drug delivery system based on hyaluronic acid conjugated mesoporous silica nanoparticles has been developed to specifically target CD44 over-expressing cancer cells, showing significantly enhanced cytotoxicity compared with the free drug.