A cancer-targeted drug delivery system developed with gold nanoparticle mediated DNA–doxorubicin conjugates

Clinical therapies of cancers are generally unsatisfactory with poor patient compliance because of low therapeutic efficiency and strong side effects in normal tissues. To overcome these shortcomings and improve the efficacy of medicines, it is necessary to design some new targeting ligands, comparable to the folic acid ligand that is commonly used. Here we report a new drug delivery system for the targeted therapy of neuroblastoma cancer by functionalizing the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with DNA that contains cellular prion protein (PrP C ) aptamers. Owing to the specific identification between the aptamer and PrP C expressed on the surface of human bone marrow neuroblastoma (SK-N-SH) cells, the DNA–drug conjugates were delivered to the target cancer cells, and thus apoptosis of these cells occurred. The in vitro toxicity assay and fluorescence imaging results showed that the AuNP mediated DNA–doxorubicin conjugates (AuNPs–DNA(Dox)) could be demonstrated as a specific and effective therapeutic agent for neuroblastoma cancer.