Development of Corn-Derived Nanoparticles as Mass-Producible Bionanoparticles with Anticancer Activity

Recent studies have shown that plant-derived nanoparticles (NPs) contain biologically active molecules and have potential applications as therapeutic agents or delivery carriers for bioactive molecules. In this study, we selected corn as a material for plant-derived NPs as corn is inexpensive to grow and is mass-produced globally, and these characteristics are similar to those of plant-derived NPs, which are easy to prepare and can be produced at high yields and low costs. Super sweet corn was homogenized in water to obtain corn juice, which was then centrifuged, filtered through a 0.45 µm-pore size syringe filter, and ultracentrifuged to obtain corn-derived NPs (cNPs). cNPs obtained were approximately 80 nm in diameter and negatively charged (−17 mV). cNPs were taken up by various types of cells, including colon26 tumor cells and RAW264.7 macrophage-like cells, with selective reduction of the proliferation of colon26 cells. Moreover, cNPs induced tumor necrosis factor-α release from RAW264.7 cells. cNPs and RAW264.7 in combination significantly suppressed the proliferation of colon26/fluc cells. Daily intratumoral injections of cNPs significantly suppressed the growth of subcutaneous colon26 tumors in mice, with no significant body weight loss. These results indicate excellent anti-tumor activity of cNPs.