In vivo tumor suppression efficacy of mesoporous silica nanoparticles-based drug-delivery system: enhanced efficacy by folate modification.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have proven to be promising vehicles for drug delivery. However, despite the potential, few studies have extended the success of in vitro studies to animal settings. In this article, we report the efficacy of MSNs using two different human pancreatic cancer xenografts on different mouse species. Significant tumor-suppression effects were achieved with camptothecin-loaded MSNs. Dramatic improvement of the potency of tumor suppression was obtained by surface modifying MSNs with folic acid. Dose-dependent tumor suppression was observed, establishing 0.5 mg of CPT-loaded MSNs per mouse as a minimum dose sufficient for achieving complete tumor growth inhibition. Renal excretion of MSNs was also confirmed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. These findings highlight attractive features (biocompatibility, renal clearance and high efficacy for delivering anticancer drugs) of MSNs as a drug-delivery system. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: In this study, mesoporous silica nanoparticles are used as chemotherapy delivering agents in two different human pancreatic cancer xenografts and different mouse species. Significant tumor-suppression effects, biocompatibility and efficient renal clearance are demonstrated.