Melatonin potentiates “inside-out” nano-thermotherapy in human breast cancer cells: a potential cancer target multimodality treatment based on melatonin-loaded nanocomposite particles

Abstract

Wensheng Xie,1,2 Qin Gao,1,2 Dan Wang,1,2 Wei Wang,1,2 Jie Yuan,1,2 Zhenhu Guo,3 Hao Yan,1,2 Xiumei Wang,1,2 Xiaodan Sun,1,2 Lingyun Zhao1,2 1State key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Ministry of Education of China, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tsinghua University, 3School of Earth Science and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China Purpose: With the wide recognition of oncostatic effect of melatonin, the current study proposes a potential breast cancer target multimodality treatment based on melatonin-loaded magnetic nanocomposite particles (Melatonin-MNPs).Methods: Melatonin-MNPs were fabricated by the single emulsion solvent extraction/evaporation method.Results: Based on the facilitated transport of melatonin by the GLUT overexpressed on the cell membrane, such Melatonin-MNPs can be more favorably uptaken by MCF-7 cells compared with the melatonin-free nanocomposite particles, which indicates the cancer targeting ability of melatonin molecule. Inductive heating can be generated by exposure to the Melatonin-MNPs internalized within cancer cells under alternative magnetic field, so as to achieve the “inside-out” magnetic nano-thermotherapy. In addition to demonstrating the superior cytotoxic effect of such nano-thermotherapy over the conventional exogenous heating by metal bath, more importantly, the sustainable release of melatonin from the Melatonin-MNPs can be greatly promoted upon responsive to the magnetic heating. The multimodality treatment based on Melatonin-MNPs can lead to more significant decrease in cell viability than any single treatment, suggesting the potentiated effect of melatonin on the cytotoxic response to nano-thermotherapy.Conclusion: This study is the first to fabricate the precisely engineered melatonin-loaded multifunctional nanocomposite particles and demonstrate the potential in breast cancer target multimodality treatment. Keywords: melatonin, magnetic nano-thermotherapy, multifunctional nanoparticles, breast cancer, cancer multimodality treatment, cancer target

Keywords

• melatonin
• magnetic nano-thermotherpay
• multifunctional nanoparticles
• breast cancer
• cancer multimodality treatment
• cancer target