Fabrication of poly(ethylene glycol)-coated mesoporous nanocomposite ZnO@Fe2O3 for methotrexate delivery: An integrated nanoplatform for dual-mode cancer therapy

Advances and perspectives in phototherapy-based combination therapy for cancer treatment

Phototherapy, including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), has the advantages of spatiotemporal selectivity, non-invasiveness, and negligible drug resistance. Phototherapy has been approved for treating superficial epidermal tumors. However, its therapeutic efficacy is limited by the hypoxic tumor microenvironment and the highly expressed heat shock protein. Moreover, poor tissue penetration and focused irradiation laser region in phototherapy make treating deep tissues and metastatic tumors challenging. Combination therapy strategies, which integrate the advantages of each treatment and overcome their disadvantages, can significantly improve the therapeutic efficacy. Recently, many combination therapy strategies have been reported. Our study summarizes the strategies used for combining phototherapy with other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, sonodynamic therapy, gas therapy, starvation therapy, and chemodynamic therapy. Some research cases were selected to analyze the combination therapy effect, delivery platform feature, and synergetic anticancer mechanisms. Moreover, additional research cases are summarized in the tables. This review provides strong evidence that phototherapy-based combination strategies can enhance the anticancer effect compared with phototherapy alone. Additionally, the challenges and future perspectives associated with these combinational therapies are discussed.

A dual catalytic functionalized hollow mesoporous silica-based nanocarrier coated with bacteria-derived exopolysaccharides for targeted delivery of irinotecan to colorectal cancer cells

In this study, we introduced a multifunctional hollow mesoporous silica-based nanocarrier (HMSN) for the targeted delivery of irinotecan (IRT) to colorectal cancer cells. Due to their large reservoirs, hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles are suitable platforms for loading significant amounts of drugs for sustained drug release. To respond to pH and redox, HMSNs were functionalized with cerium and iron oxides. Additionally, they were coated with bacterial-derived exopolysaccharide (EPS) as a biocompatible polymer. In vitro analyses revealed that cytotoxicity induced in cancer cells through oxidative stress, mediated by mature nanocarriers (EPS.IRT.Ce/Fe.HMSN), was surprisingly greater than that caused by free drugs. Cerium and iron ions, in synergy with the drug, were found to generate reactive oxygen species when targeting the acidic pH within lysosomes and the tumor microenvironment. This, in turn, triggered cascade reactions, leading to cell death. In vivo experiments revealed that the proposed nanocarriers had no noticeable effect on healthy tissues. These findings indicate the selective delivery of the drug to cancerous tissue and the induction of antioxidant effects due to the dual catalytic properties of cerium in normal cells. Accordingly, this hybrid drug delivery system provides a more effective treatment for colorectal cancer with the potential for cost-effective scaling up.

Stimuli-Responsive Hybrid Metal Nanocomposite - A Promising Technology for Effective Anticancer Therapy

Cancer is one of the most challenging, life-threatening illnesses to cure, with over 10 million new cases diagnosed each year globally. Improved diagnostic cum treatment with common side-effects are warranting for successful therapy. Nanomaterials are recognized to improve early diagnosis, imaging, and treatment. Recently, multifunctional nanocomposites attracted considerable interest due to their low-cost production, and ideal thermal and chemical stability, and will be beneficial in future diagnostics and customized treatment capacity. Stimuli-Responsive Hybrid Metal Nanocomposites (SRHMNs) based nanocomposite materials pose the on/off delivery of bioactive compounds such as medications, genes, RNA, and DNA to specific tissue or organs and reduce toxicity. They simultaneously serve as sophisticated imaging and diagnostic tools when certain stimuli (e.g., temperature, pH, redox, ultrasound, or enzymes) activate the nanocomposite, resulting in the imaging-guided transport of the payload at defined sites. This review in detail addresses the recent advancements in the design and mechanism of internal breakdown processes of the functional moiety from stimuli-responsive systems in response to a range of stimuli coupled with metal nanoparticles. Also, it provides a thorough understanding of SRHMNs, enabling non-invasive interventional therapy by resolving several difficulties in cancer theranostics.

Theranostic applications of stimulus-responsive systems based on Fe2O3

According to the interaction of nanoparticles with biological systems, enthusiasm for nanotechnology in biomedical applications has been developed in the past decades. Fe2O3 nanoparticles, as the most stable iron oxide, have special merits that make them useful widely for detecting diseases, therapy, drug delivery, and monitoring the therapeutic process. This review presents the fabrication methods of Fe2O3-based materials and their photocatalytic and magnetic properties. Then, we highlight the application of Fe2O3-based nanoparticles in diagnosis and imaging, different therapy methods, and finally, stimulus-responsive systems, such as pH-responsive, magnetic-responsive, redox-responsive, and enzyme-responsive, with an emphasis on cancer treatment. In addition, the potential of Fe2O3 to combine diagnosis and therapy within a single particle called theranostic agent will be discussed.

Methotrexate-loaded folic acid of solid-phase synthesis conjugated gold nanoparticles targeted treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

PURPOSE

Methotrexate (MTX) is a first-line drug for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Targeting of MTX to inflamed joints is essential to the prevention of potential toxicity and improving therapeutic effects. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are characterized by controllable particle sizes and good biocompatibilities, therefore, they are promising drug delivery systems. We aimed at developing a GNPs drug delivery system incorporating MTX and folic acid (FA) with strong efficacies against RA.

METHODS

MTX-Cys-FA was synthesized through solid-phase organic synthesis. Then, it was coupled with sulfhydryl groups in GNPs, thereby successfully preparing a GNPs/MTX-Cys-FA nanoconjugate with targeting properties. Physical and chemical techniques were used to characterize it. Moreover, we conducted its stability, release, pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and cell cytotoxicity, cell uptake, cell migration, as well as its therapeutic effect on CIA rats. The histopathology was conducted to investigate anti-RA effects of GNPs/MTX-Cys-FA nanoconjugates.

RESULTS

The GNPs/MTX-Cys-FA nanoconjugate exhibited a spherical appearance, had a particle size of 103.06 nm, a zeta potential of -33.68 mV, drug loading capacity of 11.04 %, and an encapsulation efficiency of 73.61%. Cytotoxicity experiments revealed that GNPs had good biocompatibilities while GNPs/MTX-Cys-FA exhibited excellent drug-delivery abilities. Cell uptake and migration experiment showed that nanoconjugates containing FA by LPS activated mouse mononuclear macrophages (RAW264.7) was significantly increased, and they exerted significant inhibitory effects on human fibroblast-like synoviocytes (HFLS) of RA (p<0.01). In addition, the nanoconjugate prolonged blood circulation time of MTX in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats (p<0.01), enhanced MTX accumulation in inflamed joints (p<0.01), enhanced their therapeutic effects (p<0.01), and reduced toxicity to major organs (p<0.01).

CONCLUSION

GNPs/MTX-Cys-FA nanoconjugates provide effective approaches for RA targeted therapeutic strategies.

Antitumor activities of carboplatin-doxorubicin-ZnO complexes in different human cancer cell lines (breast, cervix uteri, colon, liver and oral) under UV exposition

This study aimed to examine the pharmacological profiles of multiple chemo drug candidates in systematic circulation to enhance their specific interactions with five human cancer cell lines. ZnO nanoparticles were successfully bound with chemo drugs via physical adsorption. The drug loading capacity was confirmed by FTIR, whereas the loading efficiency was determined via UV-vis spectrometry. The mean hydrodynamic size increased to 69-82 nm after chemo-drug immobilization via non-covalent interaction with ZnO. Among the nine formulated chemo drugs, the carboplatin (CP)-doxorubicin (DOX)-ZnO complex under UV light irradiation exhibited high sensitivity towards human breast adenocarcinoma cells without affecting human keratinocyte immortal cells with an IC50 of 0.137 µg/mL, whereas the loading capacity and efficiency of CP-DOX-ZnO were 77.81% and 99.05%, respectively. Fluorescence images confirmed that CP-DOX-ZnO using DOX served as a fluorescence enhancer specifically bound onto the cell membranes, which became almost saturated after 24 h incubation. Carboplatin-DOX-ZnO was possibly endocytosed by cancer cells and was selectively internalized into the target cells; thus, free chemo drug was released in the cytoplasm, which induced acute apoptosis. This resulted in complete inhabitation of growth signal of target cancer cells.

Induction of osteogenesis in bone tumour cells by purine-conjugated zinc-hydroxyapatite

This study aimed to improve the biocompatibility and osteogenic property of hydroxyapatite (HAP). So HAP nanoparticles were doped with zinc (Zn), and their surface was modified with a purine nucleotide, guanosine 5′-triphosphate (GTP). GTP-loaded nanoparticles (GTP@ZnHAP) were characterised by field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, zeta potential and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. Biological experiments revealed that GTP@ZnHAP nanoparticles were internalised by the cells, inhibiting tumour cell (osteoblast-like cells, Saos-2) expansion with an efficiency more than that observed for ZnHAP nanoparticles and GTP alone. Furthermore, Saos-2 cells were committed to differentiate into the normal osteoblast cells under the influence of GTP@ZnHAP nanoparticles demonstrated by the quantitative assessment of bone-related protein expression (Runx2 and osteocalcin) and cell morphological changes. Moreover, high-performance liquid chromatography analyses disclosed a significant enhancement of intracellular GTP content in GTP@ZnHAP-treated cells, proposing perturbation of intracellular nucleotide equilibrium during the process of osteogenesis induced by GTP@ZnHAP nanoparticles. Overall, GTP@ZnHAP exhibits a better synergistic effect on the modulation of cell growth and induction of osteogenic differentiation in osteosarcoma cells than ZnHAP nanoparticles and GTP alone do. Therefore, GTP@ZnHAP may be regarded as a promising biomaterial for the treatment of bone-related diseases.

Tailored Mesoporous Inorganic Biomaterials: Assembly, Functionalization, and Drug Delivery Engineering

Infectious or immune diseases have caused serious threat to human health due to their complexity and specificity, and emerging drug delivery systems (DDSs) have evolved into the most promising therapeutic strategy for drug-targeted therapy. Various mesoporous biomaterials are exploited and applied as efficient nanocarriers to loading drugs by virtue of their large surface area, high porosity, and prominent biocompatibility. Nanosized mesoporous nanocarriers show great potential in biomedical research, and it has become the research hotspot in the interdisciplinary field. Herein, recent progress and assembly mechanisms on mesoporous inorganic biomaterials (e.g., silica, carbon, metal oxide) are summarized systematically, and typical functionalization methods (i.e., hybridization, polymerization, and doping) for nanocarriers are also discussed in depth. Particularly, structure-activity relationship and the effect of physicochemical parameters of mesoporous biomaterials, including morphologies (e.g., hollow, core-shell), pore textures (e.g., pore size, pore volume), and surface features (e.g., roughness and hydrophilic/hydrophobic) in DDS application are overviewed and elucidated in detail. As one of the important development directions, advanced stimuli-responsive DDSs (e.g., pH, temperature, redox, ultrasound, light, magnetic field) are highlighted. Finally, the prospect of mesoporous biomaterials in disease therapeutics is stated, and it will open a new spring for the development of mesoporous nanocarriers.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles: A comprehensive review on its synthesis, anticancer and drug delivery applications as well as health risks

In recent years, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) emerged as an excellent candidate in the field of optical, electrical, food packaging and particularly in biomedical research. ZnONPs show cancer cell specific toxicity via the pH-dependent (low pH) dissolution into Zn²⁺ ions, which generate reactive oxygen species and induce cytotoxicity in cancer cells. Further, ZnONPs have also been used as an effective carrier for the targeted delivery of several anticancer drugs into tumor cells. The increasing focus on ZnONPs resulted in the development of various synthesis approaches including chemical, pHysical, and green or biological for the manufacturing of ZnONPs. In this article, at first we have discussed the various synthesis methods of ZnONPs and secondly its biomedical applications. We have extensively reviewed the anticancer mechanism of ZnONPs on different types of cancers considering its size, shape and surface charge dependent cytotoxicity. Photoirradiation with UV light or NIR laser further increase its anticancer activity via synergistic chemo-photodynamic effect. The drug delivery applications of ZnONPs with special emphasis on drug loading mechanism, stimuli-responsive controlled release and therapeutic effects have also been discussed in this review. Finally, its side effects to vital body organs with mechanism via different exposure routes, the future direction of the ZnONPs research and application are also discussed.

In vitro spectroscopic investigation of groove binding interaction of Fe3O4@CaAl-LDH@L-Dopa with calf thymus DNA

The principal goal of this study is to evaluate the interaction of Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH@L-Dopa and Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH nanoparticles with calf thymus DNA. The magnetic nanoparticles were previously prepared by a chemical co-precipitation method, and the surface of the Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles was coated with CaAl layered double hydroxides. The antiparkinsonian drug "L-Dopa" was carried by this core-shell nanostructure to achieve the drug delivery system with suitable properties for biological applications. Also, the interaction of Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH@L-Dopa and Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH nanoparticles with CT-DNA was studied using, UV-Visible spectroscopy, viscosity, circular dichroism (CD), and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques. The results of investigations demonstrated that Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH@L-Dopa and Fe₃O₄@CaAl-LDH nanoparticles have interacted via minor groove binding and intercalated to CT-DNA, respectively.

Chemical Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate)-Grafted CdTe Nanocrystals via RAFT Polymerization for Covalent Immobilization of Adenosine

This paper describes the functionalization of poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (PPEGMA)-grafted CdTe (PPEGMA-g-CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) via surface-initiated reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (SI-RAFT) polymerization for immobilization of adenosine. Initially, the hydroxyl-coated CdTe QDs, synthesized using 2-mercaptoethanol (ME) as a capping agent, were coupled with a RAFT agent, S-benzyl S′-trimethoxysilylpropyltrithiocarbonate (BTPT), through a condensation reaction. Then, 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was used to successfully initiate in situ RAFT polymerization to generate PPEGMA-g-CdTe nanocomposites. Adenosine-above-PPEGMA-grafted CdTe (Ado-i-PPEGMA-g-CdTe) hybrids were formed by the polymer shell, which had successfully undergone bioconjugation and postfunctionalization by adenosine (as a nucleoside). Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometry, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy results indicated that a robust covalent bond was created between the organic PPEGMA part, cadmium telluride (CdTe) QDs, and the adenosine conjugate. The optical properties of the PPEGMA-g-CdTe and Ado-i-PPEGMA-g-CdTe hybrids were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and the results suggest that they have a great potential for application as optimal materials in biomedicine.

Measurement of Nanoparticle-Induced Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Alterations

Mitochondria hold a critical role in cell metabolism and homeostasis. Mitochondrial injury plays central part in deciding cell fate especially in programmed cell death pathways. Various nanomaterials lead to different cell death modalities by inducing mitochondrial injury. Mitochondrial injury is manifested as multiple biochemical events ranging from altered energy production, mitochondrial outer membrane permeability, release of pro-apoptotic BCl-2 family proteins, loss of mitochondrial inner membrane potential, mitochondrial swelling, and disruption of mitochondrial structure leading to eventual lysis of mitochondria. Mitochondrial membrane permeability (loss of mitochondrial membrane potential) is a critical event in deciding cell fate. This chapter presents an overview of nanomaterial-induced loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and discusses potential nano-specific artifacts in these assays. Finally, a detailed methodology to accurately quantify and validate the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential after nanomaterial exposures is presented.