Boron Nitride Nanomaterials for Prostate Cancer Therapy
Xia Li, Qunhong Weng, Jun Zhang, Yoshio Bando and Dmitri Golberg
World Premier International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials1, as a structural analogue of carbon (C) ones, have recently started to attract increasing attentions in biomedical field. However, the exploration of BN nanomaterials in cancer therapy has been rarely reported and some problems limited their application, such as high hydrophobicity, easy aggregation, poor degradability, difficulties in targeting and manipulation, etc. Here, we report on our latest advances in regards of BN nanomaterial syntheses, surface modifications, and their potential use in prostate cancer therapy: (i) BN nanotubes@mesoporous silica core@shell structures with adjustable surface zeta potential and improved dispersibility were fabricated to enhance intracellular drug delivery into LNCap prostate cancer cells for chemotherapy2; (ii) BN nanotubes@NaGdF4:Eu core@shell structures with multimodal luminescent-magnetic properties were fabricated giving the opportunity to trace, target and thus to manipulate BN nanotubes in vitro3; (iii) Highly water-soluble, porous, and biocompatible BN nanomaterials were synthesized, which can effectively load anticancer drugs up to 300% and exhibit much higher potency for reducing the viability of LNCap cells than free drugs4; (iv) Hollow BN nanospheres with controlled boron release and good biodegradability were explored, and these exhibited unique chemopreventative effects for prostate cancer in vivo, compared with other conventional nanomaterials 5.
1 . Golberg, D.; Bando, Y.; Huang, Y.; Terao, T.; Mitome, M.; Tang, C. C.; Zhi, C. Y., Boron nitride nanotubes and nanosheets. ACS Nano 2010, 4, 2979-2993.
2 . Li, X.; Zhi, C. Y.; Hanagata, N.; Yamaguchi, M.; Bando, Y.; Golberg, D., Boron nitride nanotubes functionalized with mesoporous silica for intracellular delivery of chemotherapy drugs. Chem Commun 2013, 49, 7337-7339.
3 . Li, X.; Hanagata, N.; Wang, X. B.; Yamaguchi, M.; Yi, W.; Bando, Y.; Golberg, D., Multimodal luminescent-magnetic boron nitride nanotubes@NaGdF4:Eu structures for cancer therapy. Chem Commun 2014, 50, 4371-4374.
4 . Weng, Q.; Wang, B.; Wang, X.; Hanagata, N.; Li, X.; Liu, D.; Wang, X.; Jiang, X.; Bando, Y.; Golberg, D., Highly water-soluble, porous, and biocompatible boron nitrides for anticancer drug delivery. ACS Nano 2014, DOI: 10.1021/nn5014808
5 . Li, X.; Wang, X. P.; Zhang, J.; Hanagata, N.; Weng, Q.; Bando, Y.; Golberg, D., Hollow boron nitride nanomaterials with controlled B release as next generation chemopreventative agent for prostate cancer. 2014,unpublished work.