3 research outputs found
Protein Corona around Gold Nanorods as a Drug Carrier for Multimodal Cancer Therapy
A single nanodevice
based on gold nanorods (NRs) coloaded with
a photosensitizer, Chlorin e6 (Ce6), and a chemotherapeutic, Doxorubicin
(Dox), on its endogenously formed human serum (HS) protein corona,
i.e., NR-HS-Ce6-Dox was developed with the aim of performing multimodal
cancer therapy: photodynamic (PDT), photothermal (PTT) and chemotherapy
(CTX) simultaneously upon irradiation with a single 665 nm laser.
Here, the excitation of NRs and Ce6 resulted in photothermal ablation
(PTT), and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) to kill Cal
27 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells by oxidative stress (PDT)
respectively, while the laser-triggered release of Dox intercalated
into the DNA of cancer cells to result in DNA damage and cell death
(CTX). High laser-triggered Dox release efficiency of 71.5% and strong
plasmonic enhancement of ROS production by Ce6 (4.8-fold increase
compared to free Ce6) was observed. Uptake of both Ce6 and Dox by
Cal 27 cells was greatly enhanced, with 3.3 and 52 times higher intracellular
Dox and Ce6 fluorescence observed, respectively, 6 h after dosing
with NR-HS-Ce6-Dox compared to free drugs. The simultaneous trimodal
therapy achieved a near complete eradication of cancer cells (98.7%
cell death) with an extremely low dose of 15 pM NR-HS-Ce6-Dox loaded
with just 1.26 nM Ce6 and 12.5 nM Dox due to strong synergistic enhancement
in cancer cell kill compared to individual therapies performed separately.
No dark toxicities were observed. These drug concentrations were far
lower than any previously reported in vitro, thus eliminating any
potential systemic toxicity of these agents