Despite the exciting advances in cancer therapy over past decades, tumor metastasis remains the dominate reason for cancer-related human mortality.

In current study, DNA-wrapped gold nanorodswith doxorubicin (DOX)-loading (GNR@DOX) were developed for treatment of metastatic breast cancer via a combination of chemotherapy and photothermal ablation.

The GNR@DOX nanoparticles induced significant temperature elevation and DOX release upon irradiation with near infrared (NIR) light as shown in the test tube studies.

It was found that GNR@DOX nanoparticles in combination with laser irradiation cause higher cytotoxicity than free DOX in 4T1 breast cancer cells. Animal studies with an orthotropic 4T1 mammary tumor model demonstrated that GNR@DOX nanoplatform significantly reduced the growth of primary tumors and suppressed their lung metastasis.

The Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining assays confirmed that the tumor growth inhibition and metastasis prevention properties of GNR@DOX nanoparticles were attributed to their abilities to induce cellular apoptosis/necrosis and ablate intratumoral blood vessels. All these results suggested a considerable potential of GNR@DOX nanoplatform for treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

This work was performed by graduate student WANG Dangge, and guided by Dr YU Haijun and Prof. LI Yaping, which has been recently published in "Biomaterials” (IF=7.604).

UIL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961214006747