• c-Myc decoy oligodeoxynucleotides-loaded polycationic nanoparticles inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in NTERA-2 cells
  • Benyamin Keshavarz,1 Roghayeh Ghorbani,2 Hamid Madanchi,3 Behrooz Johari,4,*
    1. Student Research Committee, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran, Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
    2. Student Research Committee, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran, Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
    3. Department of Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
    4. Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran


  • Introduction: An increase in cancer stem cell (CSC) populations and their resistance to common treatments could be a result of dysregulation of c-Myc in certain cancer cells. In the present study, we investigated anticancer effects of c-Myc decoy ODNs loaded in poly (methacrylic acid-co-diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) (PMA-DDA)-coated silica nanoparticles as carriers on NTERA-2 cancer cells.
  • Methods: The physicochemical characteristics of the synthesized nanocomposites (SiO2@PMA-DDA-Dec) were analyzed using FE-SEM, DLS, FT-IR, and Zetasizer techniques. UV-Vis spectrophotometer was applied to analyze the release pattern of decoy ODNs from the nanocomposite. Furthermore, uptake, cell viability, apoptosis, and cell cycle assays were used to investigate the anticancer effects of nanocomposites loaded with c-Myc decoy ODNs on NTERA-2 cancer cells.
  • Results: The results of physicochemical analytics demonstrated that SiO2@PMA-DDA-Dec nanocomposites were successfully synthesized. The prepared nanocomposites were taken up by NTERA-2 cells with high efficiency, and could effectively inhibit cell growth and increase apoptosis rate in the treated cells compared to the control group. Moreover, SiO2@PMA-DDA nanocomposites loaded with c-Myc decoy ODNs induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase in the treated cells.
  • Conclusion: The conclusion drawn from this study is that c-Myc decoy ODN-loaded SiO2@PMA-DDA nanocomposites can effectively inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in NTERA-2 cancer cells. Moreover, given that a metal core is incorporated into this synthetic nanocomposite, it could potentially be used as a radiosensitizer in conjunction with X-irradiation as part of a decoy-radiotherapy combination therapy in future investigations.
  • Keywords: c-Myc transcription factor, decoy ODNs, polycationic nanoparticle, NTERA-2 cell line.