Morphology and temporal interactions of silica particles influence the chemotherapeutic cancer cell death
Astha Sharma,
Jiachen Yan,
Prakrit Siwakoti,
Ayad Saeed,
Vipul Agarwal,
Zhi Ping Xu,
Ran Wang,
Tushar Kumeria
Affiliations
Astha Sharma
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Jiachen Yan
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Prakrit Siwakoti
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Ayad Saeed
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Vipul Agarwal
Cluster for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Zhi Ping Xu
Institute of Biomedical Health Technology and Engineering, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, China; The Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia; Institute of System and Physical Biology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518107, China
Ran Wang
Mater Research Institute – The University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia; Corresponding author.
Tushar Kumeria
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia; Corresponding author at: School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Encapsulation of drugs into nanocarriers is proven to be highly promising approach in reducing drug toxicity and enhancing therapeutic efficacy. However, controlling the loading efficiency and capacity, and release of therapeutics at specific disease site has remained a key challenge, particularly for toxic chemotherapeutic drugs. This work explored the effect of treatment with empty silica nanoparticles (SNPs) and a chemotherapeutic drug either together (i.e. co-treatment) or in tandem (i.e. temporally spaced) on the cell ablation ability of the drug. The study also investigated whether the efficacy of the drug in response to these treatments was dependent on the morphology of particles. SNPs of four different morphologies (solid: SSNPs, dendritic: DSNPs, mesoporous: MSNPs, and rod: RSNP) were used, while cisplatin (CisPt) served as model chemotherapeutic. The efficacy of CisPt as a function of SNPs morphology and temporal treatment strategy was tested in HeLa cells. The results indicated that the morphology of particles as well as treatment strategy (i.e. co-incubation and post treatment) had an impact on not only the cell viability but also the cell death pathways, as evidenced by varying IC50 values and the flow cytometry analysis. Interestingly, co-treatment of SNPs with CisPt resulted in an across-the-board lower IC50 value compared to when the cells were first treated with SNPs for 24 h followed by CisPt treatment and even when CisPt was loaded into the particles for most of the SNPs.
