Taxane-Grafted Metal-Oxide Nanoparticles as a New Theranostic Tool against Cancer: The Promising Example of Docetaxel-Functionalized Titanate Nanotubes on Prostate Tumors

The combination of anticancer drugs and metal oxide nanoparticles is of great interest in cancer nanomedicine. Here, the development of a new nanohybrid, titanate nanotube–docetaxel (TiONts–DTX) is reported, the two parts of which are conjugated by covalent linkages. Unlike most nanoparticles currently being developed for biomedical purposes, TiONts present a needle-shaped morphology. The surface of TiONts is linked with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane and with a hetero-bifunctional polymer (polyethylene glycol) to create well-dispersed and biocompatible nanovectors. The prefunctionalized surface of this scaffold has valuable attachments to graft therapeutic agents (DTX in our case) as well as chelating agents (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid) to monitor the nanohybrids. To evaluate drug efficacy, in vitro tests have demonstrated that the association between TiONts and DTX shows cytotoxic activity against a hormone-refractory prostate cancer cell line (22Rv1) whereas TiONts without DTX do not. Finally, the first in vivo tests with intratumoral injections show that more than 70% of TiONts nanovectors are retained within the tumor for at least 7 d. Moreover, tumor growth in mice receiving TiONts–DTX is significantly slower than that in mice receiving free DTX. This nanohybrid can thus become a promising new tool in biomedicine to fight against prostate cancer.

A new docetaxel-nanocarrier based on titanate nanotubes (TiONts) is synthesized step-by-step. Attention is paid to the elaboration of functionalized-TiONts nanohybrids in order to control the surface properties by chemical functionalization. Their efficacy is evaluated using in vitro and in vivo prostate cancer models. TiONts which combine a chemotherapeutic agent and a macrocyclic chelator appear to be an effective theranostic platform.

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