Synergistic Combination of Calcium and Citrate in Mesoporous Nanoparticles Targets Pleural Tumors

Conventional chemotherapy leads to severe adverse effects since it involves systemic administration of toxic drugs at high dosage. Unlike traditional chemotherapeutics, calcium phosphate and citrate have both been discussed as very promising anticancer agents and are not inherently toxic. Yet, their breakthrough has been hampered by the lack of an administration approach that overcomes the strict regulatory mechanisms of the cell. Here, we present a combinatorial administration of calcium, phosphate, and citrate as colloidal, amorphous nanoparticles (CPCs) that selectively kill cancer cells without involvement of inherently toxic drugs. The particles are toxic neither before endosomal release nor after their degradation. This highly selective toxicity allowed us to successfully treat two different aggressive pleural tumors in mice, reducing their size by about 40% and 70% after only two local applications. Safety assessment studies over 2 months show no signs of adverse effects except for slightly enhanced pleural thickening after eight applications.

Automated summary

The novel ternary colloidal nanoparticles exhibit highly selective toxicity in killing cancer cells without the need for toxic drugs. By locally applying these nanoparticles, the tumor size was successfully reduced with only slightly increased pleural thickening observed.