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

TLDR

HA-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HA‑MSNs) target CD44‑overexpressing HCT‑116 colon cancer cells. The authors loaded doxorubicin into HA‑MSNs and evaluated cellular uptake and drug delivery using confocal microscopy, FACS, and cytotoxicity assays. HA‑MSNs exhibit enhanced uptake via HA receptor‑mediated endocytosis, greater cytotoxicity against HCT‑116 cells than free doxorubicin or doxorubicin‑loaded MSNs, and hold promise for targeted delivery to CD44‑overexpressing tumors.

Abstract

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.