Retarding breast tumor growth with nanoparticle-facilitated intravenous delivery of BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes

Gene augmentation therapy entails replacement of the abnormal tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells. In this study, we performed gene augmentation for BRCA1/2 tumor suppressors in order to retard tumor development in breast cancer mouse model. We formulated inorganic carbonate apatite (CA) nanoparticles (NPs) to carry and deliver the purified BRCA1/2 gene- bearing plasmid DNA both in vitro and in vivo. The outcome of BRCA1/2 plasmid-loaded NPs delivery on cellular viability of three breast cancer cell lines such as MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 were evaluated by MTT assay. The result in MCF-7 cell line exhibited that transfection of BRCA 1/2 plasmids with CA NPs significantly reduced cancer cell growth in comparison to control group. Moreover, we noticed a likely pattern of cellular cytotoxicity in 4T1 murine cancer cell line. Following transfection with BRCA1 plasmid-loaded NPs, and Western blot analysis, a notable reduction in the phospho-MAPK protein of MAPK signaling pathway was detected, revealing reduced growth signal. Furthermore, in vivo study in 4T1 induced breast cancer mouse model showed that the tumor growth rate and final volume were decreased significantly in the mouse group treated intravenously with BRCA1 + NPs and BRCA2 + NPs formulations. Our results established that BRCA1/2 plasmids incorporated into CA NPs mitigated breast tumor growth, signifying their application in the therapy for breast cancer.