International Journal of Nanomedicine (Oct 2018)

Oridonin-loaded and GPC1-targeted gold nanoparticles for multimodal imaging and therapy in pancreatic cancer

  • Qiu W,
  • Chen R,
  • Chen X,
  • Zhang H,
  • Song L,
  • Cui W,
  • Zhang J,
  • Ye D,
  • Zhang Y,
  • Wang Z

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 6809 – 6827

Abstract

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Wenli Qiu,1 Rong Chen,2 Xiao Chen,3 Huifeng Zhang,1 Lina Song,3 Wenjing Cui,3 Jingjing Zhang,1 Dandan Ye,1 Yifen Zhang,4 Zhongqiu Wang3 1The First Clinical Medical School, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China Purpose: Early diagnosis and therapy are critical to improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer. However, conventional imaging does not significantly increase the capability to detect early stage disease. In this study, we developed a multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of pancreatic cancer.Methods: We developed a theranostic nanoparticle (NP) based on gold nanocages (AuNCs) modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) and conjugated with anti-Glypican-1 (anti-GPC1) antibody, oridonin (ORI), gadolinium (Gd), and Cy7 dye. We assessed the characteristics of GPC1-Gd-ORI@HAuNCs-Cy7 NPs (ORI-GPC1-NPs) including morphology, hydrodynamic size, stability, and surface chemicals. We measured the drug loading and release efficiency in vitro. Near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and therapeutic capabilities were tested in vitro and in vivo.Results: ORI-GPC1-NPs demonstrated long-time stability and fluorescent/MRI properties. Bio-transmission electron microscopy (bio-TEM) imaging showed that ORI-GPC1-NPs were endocytosed into PANC-1 and BXPC-3 (overexpression GPC1) but not in 293 T cells (GPC1-negative). Compared with ORI and ORI-NPs, ORI-GPC1-NPs significantly inhibited the viability and enhanced the apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, blood tests suggested that ORI-GPC1-NPs showed negligible toxicity. In vivo studies showed that ORI-GPC1-NPs enabled multimodal imaging and targeted therapy in pancreatic tumor xenografted mice.Conclusion: ORI-GPC1-NP is a promising theranostic platform for the simultaneous diagnosis and effective treatment of pancreatic cancer. Keywords: pancreatic cancer, GPC1, ORI, theranostic

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