Cytotoxicity assays of MCF-7 (Left) and HepG2 cells (Right) treated for 4 hours with plain nanoparticles (NP), free paclitaxel (PTX), PTX-loaded NPs (PTX-NP), PTX-loaded NPs conjugated to random DNA (PTX-R-NP), or PTX-loaded NPs conjugated to MUC1 aptamer (PTX-Apt-NP).

<p>The cells were subsequently washed and incubated in culture media for a total of 48 hours, before cell viability in each group was assessed with a standard MTS assay (n = 6, mean ± SD).