Preparation, characterization and in vitro activity of a docetaxel-albumin conjugate

Suppression of N-Glycosylation of Zinc Finger Protein 471 Affects Proliferation, Invasion, and Docetaxel Sensitivity of Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma via Regulation of c-Myc

Zinc finger protein 471 (ZNF471) is a member of the Krüppel-related domain zinc finger protein family, and has recently attracted attention because of its anti-cancer effects. N-glycosylation regulates expression and functions of the protein. This study aimed to investigate the effects of ZNF471 N-glycosylation on the proliferation, invasion, and docetaxel sensitivity of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). It analyzed the expression, function, and prognostic significance of ZNF471 in TSCC using bioinformatics techniques such as gene differential expression analysis, univariate Cox regression analysis, functional enrichment analysis, and gene set enrichment analysis. Using site-specific mutagenesis, this study generated three mutant sites for ZNF471 N-glycosylation to determine the effect of N-glycosylation on ZNF471 protein levels and function. Quantitative real-time PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunohistochemistry tests confirmed the down-regulation of ZNF471 expression in TSCC. Low expression of ZNF471 is associated with poor prognosis of patients with TSCC. Overexpression of ZNF471 in vitro retarded the proliferation of TSCC cells and suppressed cell invasion and migration ability. Asparagine 358 was identified as a N-glycosylation site of ZNF471. Suppressing N-glycosylation of ZNF471 enhanced the protein stability and promoted the translocation of protein to the cell nucleus. ZNF471 binding to c-Myc gene promoter suppressed oncogene c-Myc expression, thereby playing the anti-cancer effect and enhancing TSCC sensitivity to docetaxel. In all, N-glycosylation of ZNF471 affects the proliferation, invasion, and docetaxel sensitivity of TSCC via regulation of c-Myc.

Multi-wall carbon Nanotube surface-based functional nanoparticles for stimuli-responsive dual pharmaceutical compound delivery

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have the potential to serve as delivery systems for medicinal substances and gene treatments, particularly in cancer treatment. Co-delivery of curcumin (CUR) and Methotrexate (MTX) has shown promise in cancer treatment, as it uses fewer drugs and has fewer side effects. This study used MTX-conjugated albumin (BSA)-based nanoparticles (BSA-MTX) to enhance and assess the efficiency of CUR. In-vitro cytotoxicity tests, DLS, TEM, FTIR, UV/Vis, SEM, and DSC studies assessed the formulations' physical and chemical properties. The Proteinase K enzyme was used to severe amidic linkages between MTX and BSA. The findings demonstrated the efficacy of using ƒ-MWCNT-CUR-BSA-MTX as a vehicle for efficient co-delivery of CUR and MTX in cancer treatment. The MTT colorimetric method was used to evaluate the effect of chemical and medicinal compounds. Cell division was studied using the MTT method to investigate the effect of pure MWCNT, pure CUR, MTX-BSA, and ƒ-MWCNT-CUR-MTX-BSA. Studies on cell lines have shown that the combination of curcumin and MTX with CNT can increase and improve the effectiveness of both drugs against cancer. A combination of drugs curcumin and methotrexate simultaneously had a synergistic effect on MCF-7 cells, which indicated that these drugs could potentially be used as a strategy for both prevention and treatment of breast cancer. Also, ƒ-MWCNT-CUR-MTX-BSA was found to have a significant effect on cancer treatment with minimal toxicity compared to pure curcumin, pure MTX-BSA, MTX, and ƒ-MWCNT alone. Unique properties such as a high ratio of specific surface area to volume, high chemical stability, chemical adsorption ability, high capacity of drug and biomolecules of carbon nanotubes, as well as multiple drug loading at the same time The combination of ƒ-MWCNT-CUR-BSA MTX significantly impacts cancer therapy), are desirable as an alternative option for targeted drug delivery and high therapeutic efficiency.

Synthesis and in vitro antitumor activity of galactosamine-docetaxel conjugates

Docetaxel (DTX) is a semi-synthetic analogue of paclitaxel which has attracted extensive attention in the treatment of cancer. However, the current clinically used DTX formulations display low tumor targeting ability, leading to unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes with adverse effects, which poses significant challenges to the clinical application. In this study, three galactosamine (Gal) and docetaxel conjugates with different linkers were synthesized, namely DTX-(suc-Gal)2, DTX-(DTDPA-Gal)2, and DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2. These three conjugates were characterized by 1H NMR, FT-IR and HRMS. The in vitro drug release study shows that DTX-(DTDPA-Gal)2 and DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 exhibit glutathione (GSH)-responsive drug release and DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 displays higher GSH-responsiveness. The in vitro antitumor activity study shows that DTX-(DTDPA-Gal)2 and DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 exhibit enhanced cytotoxicity, cell apoptosis rate and G2/M phase arrest against HepG2 cells as compared to DTX-(suc-Gal)2, DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 displays the highest cytotoxicity, cell apoptosis rate and G2/M phase arrest among these three conjugates. In addition, DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 exhibits higher selectivity to HepG2 cells as compared to free DTX. The DTX-(DSeDPA-Gal)2 developed in this study has been proven to be an effective DTX conjugate for selective killing hepatoma cells.

Inflammation-Targeted Drug Delivery Strategies via Albumin-Based Systems

Albumin, being the most abundant serum protein, has the potential to significantly enhance the physicochemical properties of therapeutic payloads, thereby improving their pharmacological effects. Apart from its passive transport via the enhanced permeability and retention effect, albumin can actively accumulate in tumor microenvironments or inflammatory tissues via receptor-mediated processes. This unique property makes albumin a promising scaffold for targeted drug delivery. This review focuses on exploring different delivery strategies that combine albumin with drug payloads to achieve targeted therapy for inflammatory diseases. Also, albumin-derived therapeutic products on the market or undergoing clinical trials in the past decade have been summarized to gain insight into the future development of albumin-based drug delivery systems. Given the involvement of inflammation in numerous diseases, drug delivery systems utilizing albumin demonstrate remarkable advantages, including enhanced properties, improved in vivo behavior and efficacy. Albumin-based drug delivery systems have been demonstrated in clinical trials, while more advanced strategies for improving the capacity of drug delivery systems with the help of albumin remain to be discovered. This could pave the way for biomedical applications in more effective and precise treatments.

Preclinical evaluation of albumin-bound docetaxel nanoparticles as potential anti-cancer products

Docetaxel is a highly potent anti-tumor agent which is clinically effective for the treatment of various cancers. However, the clinical application of docetaxel is limited due to its poor solubility. The solvent and cosolvent existing in the complex solvent systems can lead to serious adverse effects in clinical application. This paper aimed to develop a novel formulation of docetaxel with improved aqueous solubility and enhanced anti-tumor efficacy. Novel albumin-bound docetaxel nanoparticles were successfully developed based on the nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab^TM) technology platform, showing a perfect particle size of 115.6 nm and high encapsulation efficiency (95.43%). Then the in vivo anti-tumor efficacy, plasma pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and toxicity profiles of albumin-bound docetaxel nanoparticles were evaluated in comparison with those of Docetaxel Injection. The preclinical study demonstrated that albumin-bound docetaxel nanoparticles exhibited equivalent pharmacokinetic profiles, similar safety profiles and better anti-tumor efficacy on NCI-N87 human gastric carcinoma and BxPC-3 human pancreatic carcinoma compared with those of Docetaxel Injection. These results indicated that such albumin-bound docetaxel nanoparticles are promising in reducing toxicity and enhancing efficacy in clinical applications, showing great potential for developing an advanced drug delivery system for cancer therapy.

Current trends in the use of human serum albumin for drug delivery in cancer

INTRODUCTION

Human serum albumin is the most abundant transport protein in plasma, which has recently been extensively utilized to form nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer. The primary reason for selecting albumin protein as drug delivery cargo is its excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-immunogenicity. Moreover, the albumin structure containing three homologous domains constituted of a single polypeptide (585 amino acid) incorporates various hydrophobic drugs by non-covalent interactions. Albumin shows active tumor targeting via their interaction with gp60 and SPARC proteins abundant in the tumor-associated endothelial cells and the tumor microenvironment.

AREAS COVERED

The review discusses the importance of albumin as a drug-carrier system, general procedures to prepare albumin NPs, and the current trends in using albumin-based nanomedicines to deliver various chemotherapeutic agents. The various applications of albumin in the nanomedicines, such as NPs surface modifier and fabrication of hybrid/active-tumor targeted NPs, are delineated based on current trends.

EXPERT OPINION

Nanomedicines have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment. However, clinical translation is limited majorly due to the lack of suitable nanomaterials offering systemic stability, optimum drug encapsulation, tumor-targeted delivery, sustained drug release, and biocompatibility. The potential of albumin could be explored in nanomedicines fabrication for superior treatment outcomes in cancer.

Drug-loaded oleic-acid grafted mesoporous silica nanoparticles conjugated with α-lactalbumin resembling BAMLET-like anticancer agent with improved biocompatibility and therapeutic efficacy

Despite its prominent therapeutic efficacy, chemotherapy has raised serious concerns due to the severe adverse effects and multidrug resistance evoked, which propels the search for safe and green therapeutic agents. BAMLET (bovine α-lactalbumin made lethal against tumor cell) is a well-known protein-based anticancer agent of selective tumoricidal activity. Here, we prepared oleic acid-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (OA-MSNs) conjugated with bovine α-lactalbumin, a lipoprotein complex resembling BAMLET formed on the surface of MSNs (MSN-BAMLET) to load the anticancer drug of docetaxel (DTX). Compared to that of OA-MSNs/DTX, the obtained MSN-BAMLET/DTX with a sustained and pH-responsive drug release behaviors exhibited good biocompatibility and enhanced cytotoxic effect against cancer cells. Moreover, the presence of lipoprotein complex in MSN-BAMLET contributed to the improved dispersion of the composite in solution and the inhibitory effect on the migration of cancer cells. Furthermore, the adsorption profiles of protein corona on the obtained nanoparticles were analyzed. It was found that the marked low amount and abundance of plasma proteins were adsorbed on the α-lactalbumin coated siliceous composite demonstrated its long circulation property. Finally, in vivo study showed that MSN-BAMLET/DTX contributed to the effective cancer ablation and the prolonged survival. Therefore, the constructed MSN-BAMLET of the mesoregular structure and peculiar tumoricidal effect provides a manipulable nanoplatform as drug nanocarrier for therapeutic applications.

The Release of a Highly Cytotoxic Paullone Bearing a TEMPO Free Radical from the HSA Hydrogel: An EPR Spectroscopic Characterization

This study shows the potential of a thermally induced human serum albumin (HSA) hydrogel to serve as a drug depot for sustained release of a highly cytotoxic modified paullone ligand bearing a TEMPO free radical (HL). The binding of HL to HSA was studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and imaging. The EPR protocol was also implemented for the study of matrix degradation, and ligand diffusion rate, in two additional spin-labeled hydrogels, containing 5-doxylstearate and 3-carbamoyl-proxyl. The results showed that the hydrogel is an efficient HL reservoir as it retained 60% of the ligand during 11 days of dialysis in physiological saline. Furthermore, upon incubation with Colo 205 human colon adenocarcinoma cells for 3 days, the HL/HSA hydrogel did not exhibit cytotoxic activity, demonstrating that it is also an efficient ligand depot in the presence of living cells. It was observed that the percentage of HL release is independent of its initial concentration in the hydrogel, suggesting that HSA possesses a specific binding site for the ligand, most likely Sudlow site 2, as predicted by molecular docking. The intrinsic property of albumin to bind and transport various substances, including hydrophobic drugs, may be fine-tuned by appropriate physical/chemical hydrogel preparation procedures, providing optimal drug delivery.

Emerging Albumin-Binding Anticancer Drugs for Tumor-Targeted Drug Delivery: Current Understandings and Clinical Translation

Albumin has shown remarkable promise as a natural drug carrier by improving pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of anticancer drugs for tumor-targeted delivery. The exogenous or endogenous albumin enhances the circulatory half-lives of anticancer drugs and passively target the tumors by the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Thus, the albumin-based drug delivery leads to a potent antitumor efficacy in various preclinical models, and several candidates have been evaluated clinically. The most successful example is Abraxane, an exogenous human serum albumin (HSA)-bound paclitaxel formulation approved by the FDA and used to treat locally advanced or metastatic tumors. However, additional clinical translation of exogenous albumin formulations has not been approved to date because of their unexpectedly low delivery efficiency, which can increase the risk of systemic toxicity. To overcome these limitations, several prodrugs binding endogenous albumin covalently have been investigated owing to distinct advantages for a safe and more effective drug delivery. In this review, we give account of the different albumin-based drug delivery systems, from laboratory investigations to clinical applications, and their potential challenges, and the outlook for clinical translation is discussed. In addition, recent advances and progress of albumin-binding drugs to move more closely to the clinical settings are outlined.

Multifunctional nanoparticles from albumin for stimuli-responsive efficient dual drug delivery

In this project methotrexate (MTX) conjugated albumin based nanoparticles (MTX-BSA) loaded with curcumin (CUR) drug (CUR-MTX-BSA) for simultaneous delivery of multi-chemotherapeutic drugs and combination cancer therapy were designed. Co-delivery is a new strategy which minimize the amount of each drug, reduce of side effects and also to achieve the synergistic effect for cancer therapies. The MTX was conjugated to albumin via covalent bond. Next, this synthesized prodrug loaded with CUR. Afterward, the formulations were evaluated for physical and chemical properties by DLS, TEM, FTIR, UV/Vis, DSC analysis, in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo biocompatibility studies. Furthermore, the drug loading and release study were evaluated. Proteinase K enzyme was used to break amid bond between MTX and BSA and also amidic bonds in BSA structure. Administration of up to 2000 mg/kg of BSA to healthy animals was non-toxic and all treated mice were still alive after 24 h. The result of this study proved that CUR-MTX-BSA can be used as a proficient vehicle for effective co-delivery of CUR and MTX in the treatment of cancer.