Development of a Graphene Oxide Nanocarrier for Dual-Drug Chemo-phototherapy to Overcome Drug Resistance in Cancer

Despite tremendous progress in chemotherapy, drug resistance remains a major challenge for anticancer treatment. The combinations of chemo-photothermal and chemo-chemo treatments have been reported to be potential solutions to overcome drug resistance. In this study, we developed a dual-in-dual synergistic therapy based on the use of dual anticancer drug-loaded graphene oxide (GO) stabilized with poloxamer 188 for generating heat and delivering drugs to kill cancer cells under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. The nanocomparable system is stable and uniform in size, generating sufficient heat to induce cell death. Dual drugs (doxorubicin and irinotecan)-loaded GO (GO-DI) in combination with laser irradiation caused higher cytotoxicity than that caused by the administration of a free single drug as well as a combination of drugs and blank GO in various cancer cells, especially in MDA-MB-231 resistant breast cancer cells. Exposure to "hot" NIR and GO-DI activated the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, which was confirmed based on changes in the morphology of cell nuclei and overexpression of apoptosis-related proteins. On the basis of the results, the combined treatment showed a synergistic effect compared to the effect of chemotherapy or photothermal treatment alone, demonstrating higher therapeutic efficacy to overcome one of the most severe problem in anticancer therapy, that of intrinsic resistance to chemotherapeutics.

Paclitaxel and etoposide co-loaded polymeric nanoparticles for the effective combination therapy against human osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND

The combination of chemotherapeutic drugs with different pharmacological action has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy in the treatment of cancers. Present study examines the antitumor potential of paclitaxel (PTX) and etoposide (ETP)-loaded PLGA nanoparticles for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

RESULTS

The resulting drug-loaded PLGA NP exhibited a nanosize dimension with uniform spherical morphology. The NP exhibited a sustained release profile for both PTX and ETP throughout the study period without any sign of initial burst release. The combinational drug-loaded PLGA NP enhanced the cytotoxic effect in MG63 and Saos-2 osteosarcoma cell lines, in comparison to either native drug alone or in cocktail combinations. Additionally, NPs showed an appreciable uptake in MG63 cells in a time-based manner. Co-delivery of anticancer drugs resulted in enhanced cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis. The results clearly showed that combinational drugs remarkably improved the therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic drugs. The greater inhibitory effect of nanoparticle combination would be of great advantage during systemic cancer therapy.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, our study demonstrated that PTX-ETP/PLGA NP based combination therapy holds significant potential towards the treatment of osteosarcoma.

Enhanced therapeutic efficacy and cytotoxicity of doxorubicin-loaded vitamin E – Pluronic micelles against liver cancer

In this study, a new polymeric micelle delivery system was developed to increase the therapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin (DOX) and to reduce its associated side effects.

Self-delivery nanoparticles from an amphiphilic covalent drug couple of irinotecan and bendamustine for cancer combination chemotherapy

We demonstrate an approach to prepare an anticancer drug self-delivery system from an amphiphilic covalent drug couple (Ir–Bd) for cancer combination chemotherapy.