Department of Bioengineering,, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
Illinois Sustainability Technology Center, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Apr 5;9(13):11528-11536. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b01483. Epub 2017 Mar 22.
The nanoparticles (NPs) that contain the therapeutic agent within themselves without further modifications can be coined as "self-therapeutic" NPs. The development of these agents especially when derived from natural resources can lead to a paradigm shift in the field of cancer nanotechnology as they can immensely facilitate the complex chemistry procedures and the follow up biological complications. Herein, we demonstrate that inherently therapeutic NPs "integrating" β-carotene can be synthesized from Dunaliella salina microalgae in a single step without complicated chemistry. The facile synthesis involved microwave irradiation of aqueous suspension of algae which resulted in water dispersible NPs with hydrodynamic diameter of ∼80 nm. Subsequently, extensive physiochemical characterizations were performed to confirm the integrity of the particles. The pro-oxidant activities of the integrated β-carotene were triggered by photoexcitation under UV lamp (362 nm). It was demonstrated that after UV exposure, the C32 human melanoma cells incubated with NPs experienced extensive cell death as opposed to nonilluminated samples. Further cellular analysis revealed that the significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) and in particular singlet oxygen were responsible for the cells' damage while the mode of cell death was dominated by apoptosis. Moreover, detailed endocytic inhibition studies specified that UV exposure affected NPs' cellular uptake mechanism. These inherently therapeutic NPs can open new avenues for melanoma cancer treatment via ROS generation in vitro.
纳米粒子（NPs）自身包含治疗剂，无需进一步修饰，可以被称为“自治疗”NPs。这些制剂的开发，特别是当它们源自天然资源时，可以在癌症纳米技术领域引发范式转变，因为它们可以极大地促进复杂的化学过程和后续的生物学并发症。在这里，我们证明可以从杜氏盐藻微藻一步合成具有内在治疗作用的 NPs“整合”β-胡萝卜素，而无需复杂的化学。简便的合成涉及藻类水悬浮液的微波辐射，导致水可分散的 NPs，其流体动力学直径约为 80nm。随后，进行了广泛的物理化学特性分析，以确认颗粒的完整性。在 UV 灯（362nm）下的光激发触发了整合的β-胡萝卜素的促氧化剂活性。结果表明，与未照射的样品相比，经 UV 暴露后，与 NPs 孵育的 C32 人黑素瘤细胞经历了广泛的细胞死亡。进一步的细胞分析表明，大量的活性氧（ROS），特别是单线态氧，是导致细胞损伤的原因，而细胞死亡的方式主要是凋亡。此外，详细的内吞抑制研究指定 UV 暴露影响 NPs 的细胞摄取机制。这些具有内在治疗作用的 NPs 可以通过体外产生 ROS 为黑色素瘤癌症治疗开辟新途径。
