Surface-Modified Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) in a New Perspective for Prostate Cancer Therapy.

[PURPOSE] Prostate cancer circulating tumor cells (PCTCs) are often found in the blood of patients suffering from metastatic prostate cancer and they are responsible for contributing to metastatic progression. Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been widely studied in the context of biomedical applications. Recently, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) capture and neutralization, as well as magnetically assisted drug delivery, have attracted much attention of researchers. Our studies are focused on the impact of the SPIONs stabilized with both cationic (CCh) and anionic (ACh) derivatives of chitosan on the model prostate cancer cell lines differing in phenotype and malignancy.

[PATIENTS AND METHODS] In the research conducted, SPION/CCh and SPION/ACh particles were prepared, their colloidal stability and magnetic properties were examined using dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique, fluorescence spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetometry, and their impact on the properties of prostate cells (PC-3, LNCaP and DU 145) with various degrees of malignancy (normal and cancer) was determined in correlation with proteins of the cell signaling pathways involved in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

[RESULTS] The SPION nanoparticles obtained were spherical, colloidally stable, and exhibited excellent magnetic properties. They showed an inhibiting effect on the migration of prostate cancer cells studied. Additionally, they slightly changed the expression of EMT pathway proteins, with an observed increase in E-cadherin which indicates, for the first time, a protective effect of SPIONs. The optical and confocal microscopy results obtained for the three cell lines studied indicated that the nanoparticles get internalized and also adsorbed on their surface, which is a desirable novel effect for their potential use as drug carriers in cancer therapy.

[CONCLUSION] The results obtained allow us to be the first to conclude that our SPION particles in non-toxic concentrations can be used as carriers of active substances for prostate cancer cells.