MicroRNA functional metal-organic framework nanocomposite for efficient inhibition of drug-resistant breast cancer cells

The most prevalent malignant neoplasm identified in females is breast cancer. Multidrug resistance is a significant obstacle for breast cancer chemotherapy, despite the availability of several therapies. This article describes the development of a nanocomposite based on ZIF-90 to reduce multidrug resistance in breast cancer cells. Synthesized ZIF-90 is utilized to transport MiR-489 and Adriamycin into drug-resistant cancer cells. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition that is initiated by TGF-β is dependent on Smad3, and MiR-489 may target Smad3. MiR-489 ultimately suppresses the epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathway, hence increasing the efficacy of Adriamycin therapy. The results of Western blot analysis indicated that the Smad3 is effectively reduced by MiR-489. The cell viability assay showed that the IC 50 of nanocomposite to the drug-resistant breast cancer cells (1.032 μg/mL) was nearly 40 times lower than the IC 50 of ADM to the same cells (39.87 μg/mL), and was closer to the IC 50 of nanocomposite to the non-drug-resistant cells (0.49 μg/mL). These findings conclusively shown that our developed nanocomposite has ameliorated the multidrug resistance issue.