Hyaluronic acid–conjugated silica nanoparticles for breast cancer therapy

ABSTRACT

Novel silica nanoparticles (SLN) chemically modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) were developed by exploiting the drug loading property of SLN and the tumor-targeting ability of HA to construct a tumor-targeting paclitaxel (PTX) delivery system (HA-SLN) for potential breast cancer therapy. The experimental results indicated that PTX loading into the HA-SLN was favorable to cancer therapy. PTX-loaded HA-SLN nanoparticles increased the accumulation of PTX in MCF-7 breast cancer cells via CD44 receptor–mediated endocytosis and exhibited superior anticancer activity in vitro. In vivo anticancer efficacy assay revealed that HA-SLN possessed preferable anticancer ability that exhibited minimal toxic side effects of PTX and strong tumor-suppression potential.

KEYWORDS:

• Silica nanoparticles
• hyaluronic acid
• breast cancer
• paclitaxel

Funding

The authors greatly appreciate the financial support from Social Development Research fund in Shaanxi (No. 2009K12-01)