Tumor microenvironment-responsive hyaluronate-calcium carbonate hybrid nanoparticle enables effective chemotherapy for primary and advanced osteosarcomas

Osteosarcoma is the most common malignancy in the bone. Current chemotherapy offers limited efficacy with significant side effects, especially for advanced and relapsed osteosarcomas. Nanoparticle-formulated chemotherapeutic drugs may be used to resolve these issues, but several aspects of these formulations remain unsatisfactory, such as how to improve their stability in the bloodstream, prevent undesirable drug leakage, and enhance targeted drug accumulation in the tumor. In this study, a tumor microenvironment-responsive calcium carbonate (CaCO₃)-crosslinked hyaluronate (HA) nanoparticle was prepared via a “green” process to effectively deliver doxorubicin (DOX) for the treatment of various stages of osteosarcoma. The DOX-loaded hyaluronate-calcium carbonate hybrid nanoparticle (HA-DOX/CaCO₃) demonstrated superior stability both in vitro and in vivo, and rapidly released DOX at the tumor site when triggered by the acidic tumor microenvironment. Compared with free DOX and a non-crosslinked nanoparticle (HA-DOX), HA-DOX/CaCO₃ exhibited the most potent inhibition efficacy toward both primary and advanced models of murine osteosarcoma, resulting in effective tumor inhibition, improved survival time, and reduced adverse effects. Most importantly, in the advanced osteosarcoma model, HA-DOX/CaCO₃ potently suppressed tumor growth by 84.6%, which indicates the potential of this platform for osteosarcoma treatment, particularly for advanced and relapsed cases. The proposed polysaccharide nanoparticle would be a promising drug delivery platform to advance osteosarcoma nanomedicine.