Daunorubicin Loaded Fe3O4 Nanoparticles Induce Apoptosis of Glioma Cells and Disrupt Tight Junction at Blood-Brain Barrier

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a unique and highly restricted microenvironment that keeps out toxins and exogenous substances. This also creates tremendous challenge for treating brain tumor by drug delivery across BBB. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using novel DNR loaded with Fe3O4 nanoparticles to treat glioma, an aggressive brain tumor. We found that this formulation was capable to effectively enter into BBB barrier and increase barrier permeability through opening the tight junction. This might be result from a decreased expression of a panel of cell-cell adhesion proteins, especially E-cadherin, ZO-1, and Claudin-1, revealed by two types of endothelial cells treated with DNR loaded with Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Further, this treatment also effectively triggered at least 50% apoptosis in glioma cells at a concentration of 1 mg/L. All these highlighted the potential clinical application of DNR loaded Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a promising drug for glioma treatment, due to its dual properties of the efficient delivery into BBB and anti-tumor function against glioma.