Abstract
A new paradigm for an effective delivery of therapeutics into cancer cells is presented. Degradable porous silicon carriers, which are tailored to carry and release a model anti-cancer drug, are biolistically bombarded into in-vitro cancerous targets. We demonstrate the ability to launch these highly porous microparticles by a pneumatic capillary gene gun, which is conventionally used to deliver cargos by heavy metal carriers. By optimizing the gun parameters e.g., the accelerating gas pressure, we have successfully delivered the porous carriers, to reach deep targets and to cross a skin barrier in a highly spatial resolution. Our study reveals significant cytotoxicity towards the target human breast carcinoma cells following the delivery of drug-loaded carriers, while administrating empty particles results in no effect on cell viability. The unique combination of biolistics with the temporal control of payload release from porous carriers presents a powerful and non-conventional platform for designing new therapeutic strategies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2499 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was partially supported by the NEVET Grant administered by the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) and the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials (BINA). O.S. acknowledges the EU-FP7 People IRG Grants 239482. E.S. acknowledges the support of the Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering. N.Z. gratefully acknowledges the BINA Scholarship for Outstanding Graduate Students. A.T.B. gratefully acknowledges the RBNI Scholarship for Outstanding Graduate Students. The authors thank Prof. Alex Groisman from the University of California, San Diego, for his support in the setting of the biolistic setups.
