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. 2024 May 28:590:216845.
doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2024.216845. Epub 2024 Apr 6.

CAPN2-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles: A promising nanocarrier for targeted therapy of pancreatic cancer

Etienne J Slapak  1 , Mouad El Mandili  2 , Marieke S Ten Brink  3 , Alexander Kros  4 , Maarten F Bijlsma  5 , C Arnold Spek  6
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Free article

CAPN2-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles: A promising nanocarrier for targeted therapy of pancreatic cancer

Etienne J Slapak et al. Cancer Lett. .
Free article

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic interventions, resulting in exceptionally low survival rates. The limited efficacy can in part be attributed to dose limitations and treatment cessation urged by toxicity of currently used chemotherapy. The advent of targeted delivery strategies has kindled hope for circumventing off-target toxicity. We have previously reported a PDAC-specific mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) containing a protease linker responsive to ADAM9, a PDAC-enriched extracellularly deposited protease. Upon loading with paclitaxel these ADAM9-MSNs reduced side effects both in vitro and in vivo, however, disappointing antitumor efficacy was observed in vivo. Here, we propose that an efficient uptake of MSNs by tumor cells might underlie the lack of antitumor efficacy of MSNs functionalized with linker responsive to extracellular proteases. Harnessing this premise to improve antitumor efficacy, we performed an in silico analysis to identify PDAC-enriched intracellular proteases. We report the identification of BACE2, CAPN2 and DPP3 as PDAC enriched intracellular proteases, and report the synthesis of BACE2-, CAPN2- and DPP3-responsive MSNs. Extensive preclinical assessments revealed that paclitaxel-loaded CAPN2- and DPP3-MSNs exhibit high PDAC specificity in vitro as opposed to free paclitaxel. The administration of paclitaxel-loaded CAPN2- and DPP3-MSNs in vivo confirmed the reduction of leukopenia and induced no organ damage. Promisingly, in two mouse models CAPN2-MSNs reduced tumor growth at least as efficiently as free paclitaxel. Taken together, our results pose CAPN2-MSNs as a promising nanocarrier for the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics in PDAC.

Keywords: ADAM9; Antitumor; BACE2; CAPN2; DPP3; Drug delivery; Leukopenia; MSN; Neurotoxicity; PDAC; Targeted therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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