Hyaluronic acid-conjugated silica nanoparticles for breast cancer therapy

Novel silica nanoparticles (SLN) chemically modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) were developed by exploiting the drug loading property of SLN and the tumor-targeting ability of HA to construct a tumortargeting paclitaxel (PTX) delivery system (HA-SLN) for potential breast cancer therapy. The experimental results indicated that PTX loading into the HA-SLN was favorable to cancer therapy. PTX-loaded HA-SLN nanoparticles increased the accumulation of PTX in MCF-7 breast cancer cells via CD44 receptor-mediated endocytosis and exhibited superior anticancer activity in vitro. In vivo anticancer efficacy assay revealed that HA-SLN possessed preferable anticancer ability that exhibited minimal toxic side effects of PTX and strong tumor-suppression potential.