Fig. 5

Anticancer activity of Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Aptamer nanoplatforms on 3D spheroids of EGFR⁺/PDGFRβ⁺ cancer cells and MSC. A (left) Representative phase-contrast microscopy images of BT-549/MSC spheroids treated with Ir_en-AuSiO₂_CL4, Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Gint4.T, Ir_en-AuSiO₂_CL4_Gint4.T or untargeted Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Scr. Spheroids treatment with specific aptamer-decorated nanoplatforms, but not with Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Scr, inhibits both the B number of spheroids and C cell viability, expressed as percentage of viable treated cells with respect to untreated spheroids. D Representative phase-contrast microscopy image of MDA-MB-231/MSC spheroids grown at day 13. E Cell viability assay on MDA-MB-231/MSC spheroids treated as in A. A,D Magnification: 10 × , scale bar = 100 μm. B,C,E Bars depict mean ± SD (n = 3). ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 relative to Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Scr; #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01, ###p < 0.001. No statistically significant variations among Ir_en-AuSiO₂_Scr and untreated were obtained