BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer is considered a chemoresistant neoplasm with extremely dismal prognosis and gemcitabine treatment is associated with many side effects and poor overall survival. The study aimed at developing a new nanobioconjugate, which specifically delivered gemcitabine and anti-EGFR antibody into pancreatic cancer cells.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The novel nanodrug is based on chitosan platform, which is non-toxic, biocompatibility and biodegradable. We measured the effects of proliferation and metastasis on SW1990 by CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, wound healing assay and Transwell assay. The expression of related proteins were evaluated by Western blot.

RESULTS: We synthesized Abc-GC-gemcitabine nanoparticles successfully with the encapsulation rate of nanobioconjugates was 91.63% and the drug loadings was 9.97%. Both GC-gemcitabine microspheres solution (GC group) and Abc-GC-gemcitabine microspheres solution (Abc group) inhibited cells proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in SW1990 cells dramatically. Moreover, Abc-GC-gemcitabine microspheres expressed more significant inhibited action than GC-gemcitabine microspheres efficiently

CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggested that Abc-GC-gemcitabine nanoparticles could have promising potential in treating metastasized and chemoresistant pancreatic cancer by enhancing the drug efficacy and minimizing off target effects.

Keywords: Geminiviridae, Nanoparticles