Co-delivery of doxorubicin and pH-sensitive curcumin prodrug by transferrin-targeted nanoparticles for breast cancer treatment

Lung cancer therapy using doxorubicin and curcumin combination: Targeted prodrug based, pH sensitive nanomedicine

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. To overcome the toxic side effects and multidrug resistance (MDR) during doxorubicin (DOX) chemotherapy, a urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) targeting U11 peptide decorated, pH-sensitive, dual drugs co-encapsulated nanoparticles (NPs) system is employed in this study. A U11 peptide conjugated, pH-sensitive DOX prodrug (U11-DOX) was synthesized and used as materials to produce NPs. A curcumin (CUR) and U11-DOX co-encapsulated NPs system (U11-DOX/CUR NPs) was constructed to treat lung cancer. After the characterization of biophysical properties of this NPs system, synergistic chemotherapeutic efficacy was evaluated in both cultured cancer cells and tumor-bearing animal model. U11-DOX/CUR NPs had a uniformly spherical shape with a core-shell structure. The mean particle size and zeta potential of the U11-DOX/CUR NPs was 121.3 nm and -33.5 mV, with a DOX and CUR EE of 81.7 and 90.5%, respectively. The DOX release from U11-DOX/CUR NPs was 83.5, 55.2, and 32.8% correspondence to the pH of 5.0, 6.0 and 7.4. Cellular uptake efficiency of U11-DOX/CUR NPs was significantly higher than non U11 peptide decorated DOX/CUR NPs. U11-DOX/CUR NPs displayed a pronounced synergy effects in vitro and an obvious tumor tissue accumulation efficiency in vivo. In vivo antitumor experiment showed that U11-DOX/CUR NPs could inhibit the tumor growth to a level of 85%.In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that U11-DOX/CUR NPs is a sustained released, pH responsive, synergistic antitumor system. This study suggests that the U11-DOX/CUR NPs have promising potential for combination treatment of lung cancer.

Stimuli-responsive nanoscale drug delivery systems for cancer therapy

Currently, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, novel drug delivery systems (DDSs) have made rapid progress, in which nanocarriers play an important role in the tumour treatment. In view of the conventional chemotherapeutic drugs with many restrictions such as nonspecific systemic toxicity, short half-life and low concentration in the tumour sites, stimuli-responsive DDSs can deliver anti-tumour drugs targeting to the specific sites of tumours. Owing to precise stimuli response, stimuli-responsive DDSs can control drug release, so as to improve the curative effects, reduce the damage of normal tissues and organs, and decrease the side effects of traditional anticancer drugs. At present, according to the physicochemical properties and structures of nanomaterials, they can be divided into three categories: (1) endogenous stimuli-responsive materials, including pH, enzyme and redox responsive materials; (2) exogenous stimuli-responsive materials, such as temperature, light, ultrasound and magnetic field responsive materials; (3) multi-stimuli responsive materials. This review mainly focuses on the researches and developments of these novel stimuli-responsive DDSs based on above-mentioned nanomaterials and their clinical applications.

Curcumin in combination with anti-cancer drugs: A nanomedicine review

A huge surge of research is being conducted on combination therapy with anticancer compounds formulated in the form of nanoparticles (NPs). Numerous advantages like dose minimalization and synergism, reversal of multi drug resistance (MDRs), enhanced efficacy have emerged with nanoencapsulation of chemotherapeutic agents with chemo-sensitizing agent like curcumin. Within last couple of years various nano-sized formulations have been designed and tested both in vitro with cell lines for different types of cancers and in vivo with cancer types and drug resistance models. Despite the combinatorial models being advanced, translation to human trials has not been as smooth as one would have hoped, with as few as twenty ongoing clinical trials with curcumin combination, with less than 1/10th being nano-particulate formulations. Mass production of nano-formulation based on their physico-chemical and pharmacokinetics deficits poses as major hurdle up the ladder. Combination of these nano-sized dosage with poorly bioavailable drugs, unspecific target binding ability and naturally unstable curcumin further complicates the formulation aspects. Emphasis is now therefore being laid on altering natural forms of curcumin and usage of formulations like prodrug or coating of curcumin to overcome stability issues and focus more on enhancing the pharmaceutical and therapeutic ability of the nano-composites. Current studies and futuristic outlook in this direction are discussed in the review, which can serve as the basis for upcoming research which could boost commercial translational of improved nano-sized curcumin combination chemotherapy.

Targeted and synergistic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: monosaccharide modified lipid nanoparticles for the co-delivery of doxorubicin and sorafenib

Purpose

Targeted hepatocellular carcinoma therapy was carried out to improve the efficacy of liver cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to design an N-acetylgalactosamine (NAcGal) modified and pH sensitive doxorubicin (DOX) prodrug (NAcGal-DOX) for the construction of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).

Methods

NAcGal-DOX and sorafenib (SOR) co-loaded LNPs were designed and the synergistic effects were evaluated on human hepatic carcinoma (HepG2) cells in vitro and anti-hepatic carcinoma mice model in vivo.

Results

Cellular uptake efficiency of NAcGal modified LNPs was significantly higher than unmodified LNPs. NAcGal modified LNPs showed the most significant inhibition effect among all the samples tested. The results revealed that the LNPs system achieved significant synergistic effects, best tumor inhibition ability and the lowest systemic toxicity.

Conclusion

These results proved that the NAcGal conjugated and pH sensitive co-delivery nano-system could be a promising strategy for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Effective delivery of hydrophobic drugs to breast and liver cancer cells using a hybrid inorganic nanocarrier: A detailed investigation using cytotoxicity assays, fluorescence imaging and flow cytometry

This study was focused on developing a drug carrier system composed of a polymer containing hydroxyapatite (HAp) shell and a magnetic core of iron oxide nanoparticles. Doxorubicin and/or curcumin were loaded into the carrier via a simple diffusion deposition approach, with encapsulation efficiencies (EE) for curcumin and doxorubicin of 93.03 ± 0.3% and 97.37 ± 0.12% respectively. The co-loading of curcumin and doxorubicin led to a total EE of 76.02 ± 0.48%. Release studies were carried out at pH 7.4 and 5.3, and revealed a greater extent of release at pH 5.3, showing the formulations to have potential applications in tumor microenvironments. Cytotoxicity assays, fluorescence imaging and flow cytometry demonstrated that the formulations could effectively inhibit the growth of MCF-7 (breast) and HEpG2 (liver) cancer cells, being more potent than the free drug molecules both in terms of dose and duration of action. Additionally, hemolysis tests and cytotoxicity evaluations determined the drug-loaded carriers to be non-toxic towards non-cancerous cells. These formulations thus have great potential in the development of new cancer therapeutics.

A Modular Coassembly Approach to All-In-One Multifunctional Nanoplatform for Synergistic Codelivery of Doxorubicin and Curcumin

Synergistic combination therapy by integrating chemotherapeutics and chemosensitizers into nanoparticles has demonstrated great potential to reduce side effects, overcome multidrug resistance (MDR), and thus improve therapeutic efficacy. However, with regard to the nanocarriers for multidrug codelivery, it remains a strong challenge to maintain design simplicity, while incorporating the desirable multifunctionalities, such as coloaded high payloads, targeted delivery, hemodynamic stability, and also to ensure low drug leakage before reaching the tumor site, but simultaneously the corelease of drugs in the same cancer cell. Herein, we developed a facile modular coassembly approach to construct an all-in-one multifunctional multidrug delivery system for the synergistic codelivery of doxorubicin (DOX, chemotherapeutic agent) and curcumin (CUR, MDR modulator). The acid-cleavable PEGylated polymeric prodrug (DOX-h-PCEC), tumor cell-specific targeting peptide (CRGDK-PEG-PCL), and natural chemosensitizer (CUR) were ratiometrically assembled into in one single nanocarrier (CUR/DOX-h-PCEC@CRGDK NPs). The resulting CUR/DOX-h-PCEC@CRGDK NPs exhibited several desirable characteristics, such as efficient and ratiometric drug loading, high hemodynamic stability and low drug leakage, tumor intracellular acid-triggered cleavage, and subsequent intracellular simultaneous drug corelease, which are expected to maximize a synergistic effect of chemotherapy and chemosensitization. Collectively, the multifunctional nanocarrier is feasible for the creation of a robust nanoplatform for targeted multidrug codelivery and efficient MDR modulation.

Targeting Strategies for the Combination Treatment of Cancer Using Drug Delivery Systems

Cancer cells have characteristics of acquired and intrinsic resistances to chemotherapy treatment-due to the hostile tumor microenvironment-that create a significant challenge for effective therapeutic regimens. Multidrug resistance, collateral toxicity to normal cells, and detrimental systemic side effects present significant obstacles, necessitating alternative and safer treatment strategies. Traditional administration of chemotherapeutics has demonstrated minimal success due to the non-specificity of action, uptake and rapid clearance by the immune system, and subsequent metabolic alteration and poor tumor penetration. Nanomedicine can provide a more effective approach to targeting cancer by focusing on the vascular, tissue, and cellular characteristics that are unique to solid tumors. Targeted methods of treatment using nanoparticles can decrease the likelihood of resistant clonal populations of cancerous cells. Dual encapsulation of chemotherapeutic drug allows simultaneous targeting of more than one characteristic of the tumor. Several first-generation, non-targeted nanomedicines have received clinical approval starting with Doxil® in 1995. However, more than two decades later, second-generation or targeted nanomedicines have yet to be approved for treatment despite promising results in pre-clinical studies. This review highlights recent studies using targeted nanoparticles for cancer treatment focusing on approaches that target either the tumor vasculature (referred to as 'vascular targeting'), the tumor microenvironment ('tissue targeting') or the individual cancer cells ('cellular targeting'). Recent studies combining these different targeting methods are also discussed in this review. Finally, this review summarizes some of the reasons for the lack of clinical success in the field of targeted nanomedicines.

Styrene maleic acid-encapsulated RL71 micelles suppress tumor growth in a murine xenograft model of triple negative breast cancer

Patients with triple negative breast cancer have a poor prognosis due in part to the lack of targeted therapies. In the search for novel drugs, our laboratory has developed a second-generation curcumin derivative, 3,5-bis(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylidene)-1-methylpiperidine-4-one (RL71), that exhibits potent in vitro cytotoxicity. To improve the clinical potential of this drug, we have encapsulated it in styrene maleic acid (SMA) micelles. SMA-RL71 showed improved biodistribution, and drug accumulation in the tumor increased 16-fold compared to control. SMA-RL71 (10 mg/kg, intravenously, two times a week for 2 weeks) also significantly suppressed tumor growth compared to control in a xenograft model of triple negative breast cancer. Free RL71 was unable to alter tumor growth. Tumors from SMA-RL71-treated mice showed a decrease in angiogenesis and an increase in apoptosis. The drug treatment also modulated various cell signaling proteins including the epidermal growth factor receptor, with the mechanisms for tumor suppression consistent with previous work with RL71 in vitro. The nanoformulation was also nontoxic as shown by normal levels of plasma markers for liver and kidney injury following weekly administration of SMA-RL71 (10 mg/kg) for 90 days. Thus, we report clinical potential following encapsulation of a novel curcumin derivative, RL71, in SMA micelles.

Transcription activator, hyaluronic acid and tocopheryl succinate multi-functionalized novel lipid carriers encapsulating etoposide for lymphoma therapy

Delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs using nanocarriers is emerging as a promising approach for the treatment of cancer. The aim of this research was to develop a dual targeted d-α-tocopheryl succinate (TOS) functionalized nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), using etoposide (ETP) as a model drug to prove their in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor effects. Novel ETP loaded NLCs were constructed (ETP-NLCs). Hyaluronic acid (HA) and cell-penetrating peptide transcription activator (TAT) was applied for the surface decoration of ETP NLCs (HATOS/TATTOS-ETP-NLCs). The antitumor efficiency of HATOS/TATTOS-ETP-NLCs was evaluated in tumor bearing animal models. HATOS/TATTOS-ETP-NLCs displayed significantly higher transfection efficiency and better antitumor ability than undecorated ETP-NLCs in lymphoma cells bearing mice model. The newly constructed NLCs could successfully load drug and gene; and TAT could function as excellent targeting ligands to improve the cell targeting ability of the gene loaded nanocarriers. The resulting dual ligands decorated vectors could be a promising targeted gene delivery system for the lymphoma treatment.