Cinnamaldehyde and Doxorubicin Co-Loaded Graphene Oxide Wrapped Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Enhanced MCF-7 Cell Apoptosis.

Background: Combined chemotherapy is often affected by the different physicochemical properties of chemotherapeutic drugs, which should be improved by the reasonable design of co-loaded preparations.

Purpose: A kind of simple but practical graphene oxide (GO) wrapped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) modified with hyaluronic acid (MSN@GO-HA) were developed for the co-delivery of cinnamaldehyde (CA) and doxorubicin (DOX), in order to enhance their combined treatment on tumor cells and reduce their application defects.

Methods: The MSN@GO-HA was constructed by MSN (loading CA via physical diffusion) and GO-HA (modified with HA and loading DOX via π-π stacking) through the electrostatic adsorption, followed by the physicochemical characterization, serum stability and in vitro release study. Cytotoxicity on different cells was detected, followed by the tumor cell uptake tests. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) changes, mitochondrial functions and activities of caspase-3/-9 in MCF-7 cells were also evaluated, respectively.

Results: The MSN@GO-HA nanoparticles kept stable in FBS solution and achieved pH-responsive release behavior, which was beneficial to increase the accumulation of CA and DOX in tumor cells to enhance the treatment. MSN@GO-HA exerted higher cytotoxicity to MCF-7 human breast cancer cells than H9c2 cardiac myocyte cells, which were not only attributed to the active targeting to tumor cells by HA, but also related with the activation of intrinsic apoptotic pathway in MCF-7 cells induced by CA, which was mediated by the specific ROS signal amplification and the interference with mitochondrial function. Moreover, the efficacy of DOX was also enhanced by the above process.

Conclusion: The establishment of the MSN@GO-HA nanoparticles played a role in promoting strengths and restricting shortcomings of CA and DOX, thereby exerting their function and achieving efficient treatment against cancer.