Skip to main content
Passa alla visualizzazione normale.

MARIANO LICCIARDI

SPIONs Embedded in Polyamino acid Nanogels to Synergistically Treat Tumor Microenvironment and Breast Cancer Cells

  • Authors: Mauro, Nicolò; Scialabba, Cinzia; Puleio, Roberto; Varvarà, Paola; Licciardi, Mariano; Cavallaro, Gennara; Giammona, Gaetano
  • Publication year: 2019
  • Type: Articolo in rivista (Articolo in rivista)
  • OA Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10447/319096

Abstract

The extremely complex tumor microenvironment (TME) in humans is the major responsible for the therapeutic failure in cancer nanomedicine. A new concept of disease-driven nanomedicine, henceforth named "Theranomics", which attempts to target cancer cells and TME on the whole, represents an attractive alternative. Herein, a nanomedicine able to co-deliver doxorubicin and a tumor suppressive proteolytic protein such as collagenase-2 was developed. We successfully obtained superparamagnetic nanogels (SPIONs/Doco@Col) via the intermolecular azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition. We demonstrated that a local ECM degradation and remodeling in solid tumors by means of collagenase-2 could enhance tumor penetration of nanomedicines and the in situ sustained release of the drug payload throughout 3-D tumor spheroids up to the core (parenchyma), thus enabling a synergistic and efficient anticancer effect toward highly invasive breast tumors. We illustrate that SPIONs/Doxo@Col is also capable of reducing the invasivity of cancer cells.