Polyethylenimine-coated SPION exhibits potential intrinsic anti-metastatic properties inhibiting migration and invasion of pancreatic tumor cells.

Due to its aggressive behavior, pancreatic cancer is one of the principal causes of cancer-related deaths. The highly metastatic potential of pancreatic tumor cells demands the development of more effective anti-metastatic approaches for this disease. Although polyethylenimine-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (PEI-coated SPIONs) have been studied for their utility as transfection agents, little is known of their effect on tumor cell biology. Here we demonstrated that PEI-coated SPIONs have potent inhibitory effects on pancreatic tumor cell migration/invasion, through inhibition of Src kinase and decreased expression of MT1-MMP and MMP2 metalloproteinases. When treated with PEI-coated SPIONs, the pancreatic tumor cell line Pan02 showed reduced invadosome density and thus, a decrease in their ability to invade through basement membrane. These nanoparticles temporarily downmodulated microRNA-21, thereby upregulating the cell migration inhibitors PTEN, PDCD4 and Sprouty-1. PEI-coated SPIONs thus show intrinsic, possibly anti-metastatic properties for modulating pancreatic tumor cell migration machinery, which indicates their potential as anti-metastatic agents for treatment of pancreatic cancer.