Hyaluronic acid modified mesoporous carbon nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery to CD44-overexpressing cancer cells

In this paper, hyaluronic acid (HA) functionalized uniform mesoporous carbon spheres (UMCS) were synthesized for targeted enzyme responsive drug delivery using a facile electrostatic attraction. strategy. This HA. modification ensured. stable drug encapsulation in mesoporous carbon nanoparticles in an. extracellular environment while increasing. colloidal stability, biocompatibility, cell-targeting ability, and controlled cargo release. The cellular uptake experiments of fluorescently. labeled mesoporous carbon nanoparticles, with or without HA functionalization, demonstrated that HA-UMCS are able to specifically target cancer cells overexpressing CD44 receptors. Moreover, the. cargo. loaded. doxorubicin (DOX) and verapamil (VER) exhibited. a dual pH and hyaluronidase-1 responsive release in the tumor microenvironment. In addition,. VER/DOX/HA-UMCS exhibited a superior therapeutic effect on an. in vivo HCT-116 tumor in BALB/c nude mice. In summary, it is expected that HA-UMCS will offer a new method. for targeted co-delivery of drugs to tumors overexpressing CD44 receptors.