Abstract
Resistance to chemotherapy and the side effects of anticancer drugs are the major obstacles for glioma treatment. The aim of the present study was to develop a novel approach for the treatment of gliomas that improved the therapeutic effect; the anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), was combined with short interfering (si)RNA and monomethoxy polyethylene glycol polyethylenimine superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (mPEG-PEI-SPION), a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-visible nanoparticle. Specific siRNA molecules, delivered by mPEG-PEI-SPION, were employed to knockdown the PIN2-interacting protein 1 (PinX1) gene in C6 glioma cells. PinX1 is a nucleolar protein associated with telomere and telomerase. C6 cells were treated with DOX and/or PinX1-siRNA. The results of the transfection experiments revealed that siRNA/mPEG-PEI-SPION was transfected into C6 cells with high efficiency. PinX1-siRNA was unable to inhibit C6 cells, while in the PinX1-siRNA + DOX group, the same dose of DOX caused an increased loss of cell viability. Therefore, mPEG-PEI-SPION was shown to be viable for siRNA delivery into C6 cells and coadministration of DOX with PinX1-siRNA may be a potential therapeutic method for inhibiting gliomas.