Stimuli-Responsive Mesoporous Silica NPs as Non-viral Dual siRNA/Chemotherapy Carriers for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and lethal subtype of breast cancer. It is associated with a very poor prognosis and intrinsically resistant to several conventional and targeted chemotherapy agents and has a 5-year survival rate of less than 25%. Because the treatment options for TNBC are very limited and not efficient enough for achieving minimum desired goals, shifting toward a new generation of anti-cancer agents appears to be very critical. Among recent alternative approaches being proposed, small interfering RNA (siRNA) gene therapy can potently suppress Bcl-2 proto-oncogene and p-glycoprotein gene expression, the most important chemotherapy resistance inducers in TNBC. When resensitized, primarily ineffective chemotherapy drugs turn back into valuable sources for further intensive chemotherapy. Regrettably, siRNA’s poor stability, rapid clearance in the circulatory system, and poor cellular uptake mostly hampers the beneficial outcomes of siRNA therapy. Considering these drawbacks, dual siRNA/chemotherapy drug encapsulation in targeted delivery vehicles, especially mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) appears to be the most reasonable solution. The literature is full of reports of successful treatments of multi-drug-resistant cancer cells by administration of dual drug/siRNA-loaded MSNs. Here we tried to answer the question of whether application of a similar approach with identical delivery devices in TNBC is rational.