Synergistic anticancer effects of nanocarrier loaded with berberine and miR-122.

We introduced polyethyleneimine (PEI)-cholesterol (PC) as a nanocarrier incorporating berberine (BER) and miR-122 for the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). BER was stabilized by incorporating PC to form ber-PC. Ber-PC was further electrostatically complexed with miR-122 to yield mr-ber-PC for the co-delivery of BER and miR-122. mr-ber-PC treatment dramatically decreased the level of invasion and migration of OSCC cells compared with single drug treatments. The present study suggested that PC could be a multifunctional nanocarrier for the co-delivery of anticancer drug BER and miR-122 to significantly increase the anticancer therapeutic effects.