Chemical groups that adhere to the surfaces of living malignant cells

We determined the adhesion of particles with phenyl, carboxylic acid (COOH), amine, dialkyl phosphonate, ester, and hydroxyl groups to malignant and nonmalignant cells, in order to better design drug delivery systems (DDS) for malignant cells.

Living mouse melanoma skin (B16F10) and noncancerous mouse fibroblast (L929) cells, and an Atomic Force Microscope were used to determine the adhesion strengths.

The measurement of the particles against B16F10 cells showed that COOH had the highest average maximum adhesion force () and a large standard deviation (std), and phenyl had the lowest and a lower std. The high and std suggested that COOH was binding the strongest to malignant cells, and to groups overexpressed on malignant cells. In the case of L929 cells, of phenyl and COOH were higher and lower, respectively, than those of the B16F10 cells. Additionally, Phenyl and COOH gave a lower std than that for the B16F10 cells. These results suggest that the lower binding of COOH to the nonmalignant cells was due to the lower number of groups that were overexpressed in the malignant cells.

Our results suggest that COOH is the best group for malignant cell targeting DDS systems.