Mesoporous Nanoparticles As Carriers for Increased Effectiveness and Welfare for Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest amongst cancers of female reproductive system. It is estimated that in the United States for 2023, over 13,000 women will die from ovarian cancer. In advanced ovarian cancer, common treatments involve intraperitoneal injections of high doses of chemotherapeutics which cause serious side effects such as neurotoxicity. Many chemotherapeutics (such as paclitaxel and oxaliplatin) and targeted inhibitors (such as afatinib) used in the treatment of cancers have low bioavailability due to their hydrophobicity and quick removal from blood circulation. This can lead to multiple treatment doses in order to affect the cancer. My work focuses on the implementation of a carrier that increases the bioavailability of such therapeutics in the blood stream. A carrier that protects the therapeutics and increases bioavailability can reduce the frequency and intensity of treatments while providing comparable or better outcomes. My work aims at implementing and optimizing nanoparticle features to administer a combination therapy (targeted inhibitors supplemented with chemotherapy) that can, in the long term, reduce side effects by lowering chemo doses. In this project, I am evaluating both lipid-based and silica based nanoparticles and using the state of the art characterization techniques to assess drug loading and nanoparticles quality. My presentation will include in silico, in vitro, and in vivo evaluation of the efficacy of drug-loaded nanoparticles against BR5 ovarian cancer cells. In vitro cytotoxicity assay showed that an afatinib/oxaliplatin combination killed up to 95.5% of the cells and an afatinib/paclitaxel killed up to 93.8%. A preliminary in vivo study indicated that a combination of afatinib and oxaliplatin is comparable to pure oxaliplatin and paclitaxel.