Delivery of MicroRNA-let-7c-5p by Biodegradable Silica Nanoparticles Suppresses Human Cervical Carcinoma Cell Proliferation and Migration.

Human cervical cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy. The continuous development of nanotechnology has allowed the wide use of nanomaterials in cancer treatment. Nanoparticles can be used as gene carriers because of their surface effect and small-size effect. MicroRNA-let-7c-5p (miR-let-7c-5p) belongs to the let-7 family. Although it has been reported to exert a tumor suppressive effect in a variety of cancers, the exact role and mechanism of miR-let-7c-5p in the progression of cervical cancer are unclear. In this study, we synthesized flower-shaped SiO₂ -PEI nanoparticles with high pDNA/siRNA loading rates. This nanoparticle with miR-let-7c-5p-expressed plasmid could effectively transfer miR-let-7c-5p to human epithelial carcinoma (HeLa) cells. In addition, the combination of nanomaterials and gene therapy could inhibit the development of cancer under the conditions of extremely low cytotoxicity. These findings provided a new anticancer strategy based on F-SiO₂ -polyethyleneimine/miR-let-7c-5p (FSP-let-7c-5p)nanoparticles and indicated that miR-let-7c-5p/IGF-1R/PI3K/AKT and -catenin/SLUG could be used as new potential targets for the treatment of cervical cancer.