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Mesoporous silica (mSiO2) can be used to carry anti-cancer drugs to tumour sites in mice. So say researchers at the University of Wisconsin−Madison in the US who have succeeded in making TRC105-conjugated mSiO2 labelled with radioactive copper for the first time. TRC105 is a chimeric monoclonal antibody that binds to both human and mouse endoglin, or CD105 (a type I membrane glycoprotein found on endothelial cell surfaces).
mSiO2 nanoparticles are a promising new category of drug delivery vehicle because they are biocompatible and non-toxic. Their surfaces can also be easily modified and their mesopores (which are around 2–3 nm across) can hold a significant amount of therapeutic molecules.
Successful anti-cancer drug delivery
In vivo tumour targeting experiments by Cai and colleagues clearly show that the 64Cu-NOTA-mSiO2-PEG-TRC105 accumulates at mouse breast tumour sites (known as "4T1") thanks to TRC105-mediated binding to CD105 in tumour blood vessels. As a proof of concept, they also demonstrated that they could successfully deliver the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) in mice with 4T1 tumours by injecting DOX-loaded 64Cu-NOTA-mSiO2-PEG-TRC105 into the animals.
Nanotech Web: Silica nanoparticles deliver anti-cancer drugs
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