Versatile quarto stimuli nanostructure based on Trojan Horse approach for cancer therapy: Synthesis, characterization, in vitro and in vivo studies

Abstract

Nanostructured delivery and diagnostic systems that induces specific targeting properties by exploiting the local physicochemical tumour characteristics will be evaluated is the present work. It is well known that cancer cells have specific physicochemical characteristics, which can be taken into consideration for the design of a broad spectrum of drug delivery systems (DDS). Some of those characteristics including the different temperature environment their susceptibility when temperature ranges between 40 and 43°C where cell apoptosis is induced, the intra- and extra-cellular pH which varies from 6.0 to 6.8, for cancer cells, and 6.5 to 7.4 for normal cells respectively, (lysosomes acidic pH ranges 4–5). Additional significant factors are the overexpressed receptors on the tumour surface. Loading and release studies were carried out by using the anthracycline drug Doxorubicin and their cytotoxicity was evaluated by using the MTT assay in healthy and diseased cell lines. The highlight of this work is the in vitro and in vivo studies which were performed in order to evaluate different nanostructures as for their biodistribution, pharmacokinetic and toxicity per se.