Enhancement of chemoradiation by co‐incorporation of gold nanoparticles and cisplatin into alginate hydrogel

Abstract

Nonspecificity and high toxicity limit the treatment efficacy and safety of chemoradiation therapy. Effective tumor targeting of anticancer drugs and radiosensitizing agents is highly desirable to amplify the efficacy of this standard cancer therapy approach. To achieve this goal, we exploited the synergy of cisplatin and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) co‐loaded into alginate hydrogel network, forming so‐called ACA nanocomplex, and X‐ray radiation. Cisplatin is a commonly used anticancer agent, and at the same time, along with AuNPs could function as radiosensitizers to enhance the radiation‐induced damages through various pathways. The ACA nanocomplex improved the therapeutic efficiency of standard chemotherapy and yielded 79% growth inhibition in CT26 colon adenocarcinoma tumor after 28 days, which was significantly higher than that of 9% for free cisplatin administration. Moreover, the combination of ACA nanocomplex with 6 MV X‐ray dramatically suppressed tumor growth up to 95%, showing 51% enhancement in antitumor activity compared to standard chemoradiation. The nanocomplex developed herein holds the promise to promote the efficiency of standard chemoradiation while maintaining the patient's safety through reducing the clinically administered doses of anticancer drug and X‐ray. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B:2658–2663, 2019.

<p>Berberine-loaded Janus gold mesoporous silica nanocarriers for chemo/radio/photothermal therapy of liver cancer and radiation-induced injury inhibition</p>

“…Some reports have revealed that the combination of chemotherapy with RT could exert excellent synergistic therapeutic effect because chemotherapy could effectively inhibit the repair of radiation-induced DNA damage as well as arrest cell cycle in the radiosensitive G2/M phase 47,48. Moreover, the combination of chemotherapy with RT could lead to an endoplasmic reticulum stress in tumor tissues, which induced the autophagy and apoptosis of cancer cells and the release of ATP and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) as well as the intratumoral accumulation of dendritic cells, γδ T cells and CD8+ T lymphocytes, resulting in an immune response for enduring the powerful anti-tumor effect. 49 Our results confirmed the high efficiency of chemoradiotherapy by FA-JGMSNs-Ber, which were consistent with previously reported applications of nanoparticles for combined chemoradiotherapy 50,51.…”

Alginate-Based Platforms for Cancer-Targeted Drug Delivery

“…The nanoparticles exhibited higher in vitro cellular uptake in human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2 cells) and higher anticancer activity against Caco-2, human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), and human breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells. Furthermore, Mirrahimi et al coloaded cisplatin and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) into alginate hydrogel networks, forming the ACA nanocomplex [ 108 ]. Cisplatin is a commonly used anticancer agent, while AuNPs can function as radiosensitizers to enhance radiation-induced damage.…”

Gold as a Possible Alternative to Platinum-Based Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer Treatment

“…Mirrahimi et al . [187] developed a novel nanocomplex composed of cisplatin and GNPs co-loaded on an alginate hydrogel network which, in combination with X-ray mega-voltage energy, decreased CT26 colon adenocarcinoma cell viability to almost 95%.…”