Enhanced cancer starvation therapy based on glucose oxidase/3-methyladenine-loaded dendritic mesoporous organosilicon nanoparticles

Abstract

Cell autophagy is a well-known phenomenon in cancer, which limits the efficacy of cancer therapy, especially cancer starvation therapy. Glucose oxidase (GOx), which is considered as an attractive starvation reagent for cancer therapy, can effectively catalyze the conversion of glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of O2. However, tumor cells adapt to survive by inducing autophagy, limiting the therapy effect. Therefore, anti-cell adaptation via autophagy inhibition could be used as a troubleshooting method to enhance tumor starvation ther-apy. Herein, we introduce an anti-cell adaptation strategy based on dendritic mesoporous organo-silica nanoparticles (DMONs) loaded with GOx and 3-methyladenine (3-MA) (an autophagy inhibition agent) to yield DMON@GOx/3-MA. This formulation can inhibit cell adaptative autophagy after starvation therapy. Our in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate that autophagy inhibition enhances the efficacy of starvation therapy, leading to tumor growth suppression. This anti-cell adaptation strategy will provide a new way to enhance the efficacy of starvation cancer therapy.