Codelivery of thioridazine and doxorubicin using nanoparticles for effective breast cancer therapy

Cancer chemotherapy can benefit from the combination of different anticancer drugs. Here, we prepared doxorubicin (Dox)- and thioridazine (Thio)-coloaded methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(l-lactic acid) (MPEG-PLA) nanoparticles (NPs) for breast cancer therapy. These NPs have an average particle size of 27 nm. The drug loading efficiencies of Thio and Dox are 4.71% and 1.98%, respectively. Compared to the treatment of Thio or Dox alone, the combination of Thio and Dox exhibited a synergistic effect in inhibiting the growth of 4T1 breast cancer cells in vitro. In addition, the Thio- and Dox-coloaded MPEG-PLA NPs could efficiently suppress the growth of breast cancer cells in vivo. This study suggests that Thio- and Dox-coloaded MPEG-PLA NPs might have potential applications in breast cancer treatment.