CaCO Nanoparticles Delivering MicroRNA-200c Suppress Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

MicroRNA (miR)-200c suppresses the initiation and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most prevalent head and neck cancer with high recurrence, metastasis, and mortality rates. However, -based gene therapy to inhibit OSCC growth has yet to be reported. To develop an miR-based gene therapy to improve the outcomes of OSCC treatment, this study investigates the feasibility of plasmid DNA (pDNA) encoding delivered via nonviral CaCO-based nanoparticles to inhibit OSCC tumor growth. CaCO-based nanoparticles with various ratios of CaCO and protamine sulfate (PS) were used to transfect pDNA encoding into OSCC cells, and the efficiency of these nanoparticles was evaluated. The proliferation, migration, and associated oncogene production, as well as in vivo tumor growth for OSCC cells overexpressing , were also quantified. It was observed that, while CaCO-based nanoparticles improve transfection efficiencies of pDNA , the ratio of CaCO to PS significantly influences the transfection efficiency. Overexpression of significantly reduced proliferation, migration, and oncogene expression of OSCC cells, as well as the tumor size of cell line-derived xenografts (CDX) in mice. In addition, a local administration of pDNA using CaCO delivery significantly enhanced transfection and suppressed tumor growth of CDX in mice. These results strongly indicate that the nanocomplexes of CaCO/pDNA may potentially be used to reduce oral cancer recurrence and improve clinical outcomes in OSCC treatment, while more comprehensive examinations to confirm the safety and efficacy of the CaCO/pDNA system using various preclinical models are needed.