Trastuzumab guided nanotheranostics: A lipid based multifunctional nanoformulation for targeted drug delivery and imaging in breast cancer therapy.

Nowadays, emerging aspects of cancer therapy involve both diagnostic and therapeutic modules in a single setting. Targeted theranostic nanoplatforms have emerged globally as frontier research for the improvement of cancer therapy. Trastuzumab (Tmab), a humanized monoclonal antibody is now being used to target human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER 2) positive cancer cells. In the present study, we have analysed the imaging and theragnosis potentiality of Tmab functionalized lipid based nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with anticancer drug rapamycin and imaging agent (quantum dots) for targeted cancer therapy and imaging. The therapeutic evaluation of drug loaded NPs were evaluated through various in vitro cellular studies. The results showed enhanced therapeutic efficacy of targeted drug loaded NPs over native drug and unconjugated NPs in HER 2 positive SKBR 3 breast cancer cell line. Moreover, exploration of the therapeutic benefits of rapamycin loaded Tmab conjugated NPs (Tmab-rapa-NPs) at molecular level, revealed augmented down regulation of mTOR signalling pathway thereby, inducing more cell death. Above all, our targeted multifunctional NPs have shown an excellent bio-imaging modality both in 2D monolayer and 3D tumor spheroid model. Thus, we can anticipate that such a multimodal nanotheranostic approach may be a useful tool for better cancer management in future.