Hollow carbon nanospheres as a versatile platform for co-delivery of siRNA and chemotherapeutics

The synergistic treatment with therapeutic nucleic acids and chemotherapeutics is considered to be a feasible strategy to overcome drug-resistant cancers. Herein, we constructed a novel amine dotted hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) to serve as a versatile platform for co-delivery of siRNA targeting multidrug resistance gene (MDR1) mRNA (siMDR1) and chemotherapeutics (Doxorubicin or Cisplatin) to fight drug-resistant cancers. The HCNs show enhanced loading capability of both siRNA and chemotherapeutics. The nanostructure down-regulates more than ∼96% of MDR1 protein expression of DOX-resistant breast cancer (MCF-7/ADR cells) and leads to ∼90% reduction of weight of MCF-7/ADR tumour on mice. Thus, the HCNs can be used as a good platform for drug delivery in cancer therapy.