Ibarra, JaimeEncinas Basurto, DavidAlmada, MarioJuárez, JosuéValdez, Miguel ÁngelBarbosa Fernández, SilviaTaboada Antelo, Pablo2025-11-202025-11-202023-07-08Ibarra, J.; Encinas-Basurto, D.; Almada, M.; Juárez, J.; Valdez, M.A.; Barbosa, S.; Taboada, P. Gold Half-Shell-Coated Paclitaxel-Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles for the Targeted Chemo-Photothermal Treatment of Cancer. Micromachines 2023, 14, 1390. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14071390https://hdl.handle.net/10347/43939Conventional cancer therapies suffer from nonspecificity, drug resistance, and a poor bioavailability, which trigger severe side effects. To overcome these disadvantages, in this study, we designed and evaluated the in vitro potential of paclitaxel-loaded, PLGA-gold, half-shell nanoparticles (PTX-PLGA/Au-HS NPs) conjugated with cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-Phe-Lys) (cyRGDfk) as a targeted chemo-photothermal therapy system in HeLa and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells. A TEM analysis confirmed the successful gold half-shell structure formation. High-performance liquid chromatography showed an encapsulation efficiency of the paclitaxel inside nanoparticles of more than 90%. In the release study, an initial burst release of about 20% in the first 24 h was observed, followed by a sustained drug release for a period as long as 10 days, reaching values of about 92% and 49% for NPs with and without near infrared laser irradiation. In in vitro cell internalization studies, targeted nanoparticles showed a higher accumulation than nontargeted nanoparticles, possibly through a specific interaction of the cyRGDfk with their homologous receptors, the ανβ3 y ανβ5 integrins on the cell surface. Compared with chemotherapy or photothermal treatment alone, the combined treatment demonstrated a synergistic effect, reducing the cell viability to 23% for the HeLa cells and 31% for the MDA-MB-231 cells. Thus, our results indicate that these multifuncional nanoparticles can be considered to be a promising targeted chemo-photothermal therapy system against cancer.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/PaclitaxelPLGAHalf shellCyRGDk peptideChemo-photothermal therapyjournal article10.3390/mi14071390open access