Antibody-functionalized nanoporous silicon particles as a selective doxorubicin vehicle to improve toxicity against HER2+ breast cancer cells

Abstract Porous silicon (PS) has been widely used in biology, biomedicine, and nanotechnology. In recent years, its application in cancer therapy has received considerable attention. PS has shown low cytotoxicity, so it is reasonable to use it as an antibody conjugate for targeted anticancer drug delivery. In this work, we synthesized PS covalently attached to doxorubicin and covered by a nanometric polymer as a crosslinker between PS and the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, using electrochemical etching for particle generation. The results revealed the formation of the antibody conjugate, obtaining particles with sizes around 250–350 nm, and a homogeneous size distribution determined by dynamic light scattering. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses showed the porous structure of the conjugate, while Fourier-transform infrared and transmission electron microscopy characterization demonstrated functionalization between PS and the antibody. The cytotoxic effect was evaluated against two breast cancer cell lines, SKBR3 (HER2+) and MCF-7 (HER2−), and one non-cancer cell line as control (HEK293). The cytotoxic effect on the SKBR3 cancer cell line was higher than on the MCF-7 and HEK293 cell lines. Notably, the targeted protein HER2 mediates the elevated cytotoxic activity exhibited by the antibody conjugate.