Carbon nanotubes enhance the internalization of drugs by cancer cells and decrease their chemoresistance to cytostatics

• Published in: Nanotechnology 2013-02, Vol.24 (4), p.045102-1-11
• Main Authors: Mahmood, M, Xu, Y, Dantuluri, V, Mustafa, T, Zhang, Y, Karmakar, A, Casciano, D, Ali, S, Biris, A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacokinetics; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - administration & dosage; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cancer; Cell death; Cell Line, Tumor; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Cytostatic Agents - administration & dosage; Cytostatic Agents - pharmacokinetics; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Drug Synergism; Drugs; Etoposide - administration & dosage; Etoposide - pharmacokinetics; Exact sciences and technology; Exposure; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Materials science; Metabolic Clearance Rate - drug effects; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructures - administration & dosage; Nanotubes; Nanotubes, Carbon - chemistry; Others; Pancreatic Neoplasms - drug therapy; Pancreatic Neoplasms - metabolism; Pancreatic Neoplasms - pathology; Physics; Side effects; Single wall carbon nanotubes; Treatment Outcome; Uptakes; Various methods and equipments
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/4/045102

Etoposide is a semisynthetic, chemotherapeutic drug widely recommended to treat an extensive range of human cancers. Our studies indicate that, while etoposide is capable of killing human cancer cells, exposure to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and etoposide results in enhanced cell death that appears to be synergistic and not merely additive. In this study, we used high pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to quantify the internal effective dose of etoposide when the human pancreatic cancer cell (PANC-1) was exposed to the combination of these agents. Our results unequivocally indicate that SWCNTs improve etoposide uptake and increase its capacity to kill cancer cells. We suggest that a combination of SWCNTs and etoposide may prove to be a more efficient chemotherapeutic protocol, especially because of the potential to lower toxic drug doses to levels that may be useful in decreasing adverse side effects, as well as in lowering the probability of inducing chemoresistance in exposed cancer cells.