Amine-Functionalized Silica Nanoparticles with Drug and Gene Co-Delivery for Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy of Breast Cancer

In our study, we report on the design and characterization of a combined angiogenesis therapy for breast cancer based on well-formed amine-functionalized silica nanoparticles (SLNs). The aminefunctionalized SLNs was employed to simultaneously deliver angiostatin (ANG) plasmid and candesartan (CD) to the same cancer cell. The well-formed ANG/CD/SLNs exhibited small particle size, reasonable positive charges, excellent loading of drug and gene in vitro. Moreover, aminefunctionalized SLNs were almost no cytotoxicity. ANG/CD/SLNs resulted in enhanced gene transfection compared to naked plasmid. More importantly, ANG/CD/SLNs as a co-delivery system achieved a stronger inhibitory effect on angiogenesis in vitro, possibly resulting from significant downregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression via different pathways. In particular, in vivo investigation on nude mice bearing MCF-7 xenografts confirmed that ANG/CD/SLNs codelivery system exerted strong anti-tumor efficacy by synergistic antiangiogenic mechanism.