Overcoming Ovarian Cancer Drug Resistance with a Cold Responsive Nanomaterial

Deciphering resistance mechanisms and novel strategies to overcome drug resistance in ovarian cancer: a comprehensive review

Ovarian cancer is among the most lethal gynecological cancers, primarily due to the lack of specific symptoms leading to an advanced-stage diagnosis and resistance to chemotherapy. Drug resistance (DR) poses the most significant challenge in treating patients with existing drugs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved three new therapeutic drugs, including two poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (olaparib and niraparib) and one vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor (bevacizumab) for maintenance therapy. However, resistance to these new drugs has emerged. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of DR and exploring new approaches to overcome them is crucial for effective management. In this review, we summarize the major molecular mechanisms of DR and discuss novel strategies to combat DR.

Nanodelivery Systems as a Novel Strategy to Overcome Treatment Failure of Cancer

Despite the tremendous progress in cancer treatment in recent decades, cancers often become resistant due to multiple mechanisms, such as intrinsic or acquired multidrug resistance, which leads to unsatisfactory treatment effects or accompanying metastasis and recurrence, ultimately to treatment failure. With a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of tumors, researchers have realized that treatment designs targeting tumor resistance mechanisms would be a promising strategy to break the therapeutic deadlock. Nanodelivery systems have excellent physicochemical properties, including highly efficient tissue-specific delivery, substantial specific surface area, and controllable surface chemistry, which endow nanodelivery systems with capabilities such as precise targeting, deep penetration, responsive drug release, multidrug codelivery, and multimodal synergy, which are currently widely used in biomedical researches and bring a new dawn for overcoming cancer resistance. Based on the mechanisms of tumor therapeutic resistance, this review summarizes the research progress of nanodelivery systems for overcoming tumor resistance to improve therapeutic efficacy in recent years and offers prospects and challenges of the application of nanodelivery systems for overcoming cancer resistance.

Osmolytes as Cryoprotectants under Salt Stress

Cryoprotecting agent (CPA)-guided preservation is essential for effective protection of cells from cryoinjuries. However, current cryoprotecting technologies practiced to cryopreserve cells for biomedical applications are met with extreme challenges due to the associated toxicity of CPAs. Because of these limitations of present CPAs, the quest for nontoxic alternatives for useful application in cell-based biomedicines has been attracting growing interest. Toward this end, here, we investigate naturally occurring osmolytes' scope as biocompatible cryoprotectants under cold stress conditions in high-saline medium. Via a combination of the simulation and experiment on charged silica nanostructures, we render first-hand evidence that a pair of archetypal osmolytes, glycine and betaine, would act as a cryoprotectant by restoring the indigenous intersurface electrostatic interaction, which had been a priori screened due to the cold effect under salt stress. While these osmolytes' individual modes of action are sensitive to subtle chemical variation, a uniform augmentation in the extent of osmolytic activity is observed with an increase in temperature to counter the proportionately enhanced salt screening. The trend as noted in inorganic nanostructures is found to be recurrent and robustly transferable in a charged protein interface. In hindsight, our observation justifies the sufficiency of the reduced requirement of osmolytes in cells during critical cold conditions and encourages their direct usage and biomimicry for cryopreservation.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles-carrying human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells counteract oxidative damage and facilitate tendon regeneration

BACKGROUND

Tendon injuries have a high incidence and limited treatment options. Stem cell transplantation is essential for several medical conditions like tendon injuries. However, high local concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibit the activity of transplanted stem cells and hinder tendon repair. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONPs) have emerged as antioxidant agents with reproducible reducibility.

RESULTS

In this study, we synthesized polyethylene glycol-packed CeONPs (PEG-CeONPs), which were loaded into the human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) to counteract oxidative damage. H2O2 treatment was performed to evaluate the ROS scavenging ability of PEG-CeONPs in hUCMSCs. A rat model of patellar tendon defect was established to assess the effect of PEG-CeONPs-carrying hUCMSCs in vivo. The results showed that PEG-CeONPs exhibited excellent antioxidant activity both inside and outside the hUCMSCs. PEG-CeONPs protect hUCMSCs from senescence and apoptosis under excessive oxidative stress. Transplantation of hUCMSCs loaded with PEG-CeONPs reduced ROS levels in the tendon injury area and facilitated tendon healing. Mechanistically, NFκB activator tumor necrosis factor α and MAPK activator dehydrocrenatine, reversed the therapeutic effect of PEG-CeONPs in hUCMSCs, indicating that PEG-CeONPs act by inhibiting the NFκB and MAPK signaling pathways.

CONCLUSIONS

The carriage of the metal antioxidant oxidase PEG-CeONPs maintained the ability of hUCMSCs in the injured area, reduced the ROS levels in the microenvironment, and facilitated tendon regeneration. The data presented herein provide a novel therapeutic strategy for tendon healing and new insights into the use of stem cells for disease treatment.

Nanodelivery systems: An efficient and target-specific approach for drug-resistant cancers

BACKGROUND

Cancer treatment is still a global health challenge. Nowadays, chemotherapy is widely applied for treating cancer and reducing its burden. However, its application might be in accordance with various adverse effects by exposing the healthy tissues and multidrug resistance (MDR), leading to disease relapse or metastasis. In addition, due to tumor heterogeneity and the varied pharmacokinetic features of prescribed drugs, combination therapy has only shown modestly improved results in MDR malignancies. Nanotechnology has been explored as a potential tool for cancer treatment, due to the efficiency of nanoparticles to function as a vehicle for drug delivery.

METHODS

With this viewpoint, functionalized nanosystems have been investigated as a potential strategy to overcome drug resistance.

RESULTS

This approach aims to improve the efficacy of anticancer medicines while decreasing their associated side effects through a range of mechanisms, such as bypassing drug efflux, controlling drug release, and disrupting metabolism. This review discusses the MDR mechanisms contributing to therapeutic failure, the most cutting-edge approaches used in nanomedicine to create and assess nanocarriers, and designed nanomedicine to counteract MDR with emphasis on recent developments, their potential, and limitations.

CONCLUSIONS

Studies have shown that nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery confers distinct benefits over traditional pharmaceuticals, including improved biocompatibility, stability, permeability, retention effect, and targeting capabilities.

Design and fabrication of intracellular therapeutic cargo delivery systems based on nanomaterials: current status and future perspectives

Intracellular cargo delivery, the introduction of small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids into a specific targeted site in a biological system, is an important strategy for deciphering cell function, directing cell fate, and reprogramming cell behavior. With the advancement of nanotechnology, many researchers use nanoparticles (NPs) to break through biological barriers to achieving efficient targeted delivery in biological systems, bringing a new way to realize efficient targeted drug delivery in biological systems. With a similar size to many biomolecules, NPs possess excellent physical and chemical properties and a certain targeting ability after functional modification on the surface of NPs. Currently, intracellular cargo delivery based on NPs has emerged as an important strategy for genome editing regimens and cell therapy. Although researchers can successfully deliver NPs into biological systems, many of them are delivered very inefficiently and are not specifically targeted. Hence, the development of efficient, target-capable, and safe nanoscale drug delivery systems to deliver therapeutic substances to cells or organs is a major challenge today. In this review, on the basis of describing the research overview and classification of NPs, we focused on the current research status of intracellular cargo delivery based on NPs in biological systems, and discuss the current problems and challenges in the delivery process of NPs in biological systems.

Harnessing Biomaterials to Study and Direct Antigen-Specific Immunotherapy

Immunotherapies are an evolving treatment paradigm for addressing cancer, autoimmunity, and infection. While exciting, most of the existing therapies are limited by their specificity─unable to differentiate between healthy and diseased cells at an antigen-specific level. Biomaterials are a powerful tool that enable the development of next-generation immunotherapies due to their tunable synthesis properties. Our lab harnesses biomaterials as tools to study antigen-specific immunity and as technologies to enable new therapeutic vaccines and immunotherapies to combat cancer, autoimmunity, and infections. Our efforts have spanned the study of intrinsic immune profiles of biomaterials, development of novel nanotechnologies assembled entirely from immune cues, manipulation of innate immune signaling, and advanced technologies to direct and control specialized immune niches such as skin and lymph nodes.

A technical note on emerging combination approach involved in the onconanotherapeutics

Cancer is the second cause of mortality worldwide, and the currently available conventional treatment approach is associated with serious side effects and poor clinical outcomes. Based on the outcome of the exploratory preclinical and clinical studies, it was found that therapeutic response increases multiple folds when anticancer drugs are used in combination. However, the conventional combination of anticancer drugs was associated with various limitations such as increased cost of treatment, systemic toxicity, drug resistance, and reduced pharmacokinetic attributes. Hence, attempts were made to formulate nanocarrier fabricated combinatorial drugs (NFCDs) to effectively manage and treat cancer. This approach offers several advantages, such as improved stability, lower drug exposure, targeted drug delivery, low side effects, and improved clinical outcome. Hence, in this review, first time, we have discussed the recent advancement and various types of nano carrier-based combinatorial drug delivery systems in a different type of cancer and highlighted the personalized combinatorial theranostic medicine as a futuristic anticancer treatment approach.

Perspectives of metal-organic framework nanosystem to overcome tumor drug resistance

Cancer is one of the most harmful diseases in the world, which causes huge numbers of deaths every year. Many drugs have been developed to treat tumors. However, drug resistance usually develops after a period of time, which greatly weakens the therapeutic effect. Tumor drug resistance is characterized by blocking the action of anticancer drugs, resisting apoptosis and DNA repair, and evading immune recognition. To tackle tumor drug resistance, many engineered drug delivery systems (DDS) have been developed. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are one kind of emerging and promising nanocarriers for DDS with high surface area and abundant active sites that make the functionalization simpler and more efficient. These features enable MOFs to achieve advantages easily towards other materials. In this review, we highlight the main mechanisms of tumor drug resistance and the characteristics of MOFs. The applications and opportunities of MOF-based DDS to overcome tumor drug resistance are also discussed, shedding light on the future development of MOFs to address tumor drug resistance.

Hyaluronidase responsive second near-infrared fluorescent nanocomplex for combined HER2 blockade and chemotherapy of HER2+ breast cancer

The human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-positive (HER2+) type is aggressive and has poor prognosis. Although anti-HER2 therapy alone or in combination with other treatment regimens showed significant improvement in survival outcomes, breast cancer patients are still suffering from tumor relapse and severe dose-limiting side effects. Thus, there is still an unmet challenge to develop effective therapeutic agents for HER2+ breast cancer treatment with minimized side effects. Herein, we produced a stimuli-responsive and tumor-targeted hyaluronic acid (HA) nanocomplex that combined HER2 blockade and chemotherapy for effective HER2+ breast cancer therapy. A hydrophobic NIR-II dye, IR1048, was covalently linked with HA to form a spherical HA-IR1048 nanoparticle (HINP), with Herceptin conjugated on the surface and paclitaxel (PTX) encapsulated inside. The fluorescent signals from the yielding Her-HINP/PTX are quenched originally, but a strong NIR-II signal is generated when HINP is degraded by the hyaluronidase that is overexpressed in breast tumors, thus allowing the tracking and visualization of Herceptin and PTX accumulation. Her-HINP/PTX peaked in HER2+ tumors at 24 h post injection as imaged by NIR-II fluorescent imaging. A significantly improved tumor growth inhibition effect was observed after five systemic treatments compared to single PTX (3.71 ± 0.41 times) or Herceptin (5.98 ± 0.51 times) treatment in a HER2-overexpressed breast cancer mouse model with prolonged survival. Collectively, the designed Her-HINP/PTX presents a new hyaluronidase-responsive and HER2 blockade nanoformulation that can visualize the accumulation of nanocomplexes and release drugs inside tumors for combined HER2+ breast cancer therapy with a great promise for translational study. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The high expressions of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in breast tumors make this subtype of cancer aggressive. Currently, chemotherapy combined with a HER2 antibody, Herceptin, is a preferred approach for HER2-positive breast cancer therapy. However, these breast cancer patients still suffer from tumor relapse and severe side effects because various therapeutic agents have inherent different biodistributions, resulting in insufficient treatment effects and unfavorable normal organ uptake of these therapeutic agents. Herein, we produced a nanocomplex carrying both Herceptin and chemotherapy drug to simultaneously deliver two drugs into tumors for efficient HER2+ tumor treatment with minimized side effects, providing new insights for designing a combined therapy strategy.

Leveraging the gel-to-sol transition of physically crosslinked thermoresponsive polymer hydrogels to enable reactions induced by lowering temperature

Much work has been done on the use of heating to trigger reactions via the temperature-dependent removal of a barrier or constraint separating reagents. Far less work, however, has been done on the use of cooling to achieve a similar goal. Numerous applications, such as those involving components or materials susceptible to persistent low temperatures and cases in which energy for heating is not available, would benefit from this inverse approach. Hence, in this study we explore whether physically crosslinked hydrogels can be reliably used as thermoresponsive constraints that allow reagents to react only upon cooling. We achieve this by loading reagents into adjacent blocks of thermoresponsive hydrogel and showing that these reagents can only react with each other after the temperature of the hydrogel falls below its lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Above the LCST, the reagents remain sequestered in separate gels and no reaction occurs; this "OFF" state is stable for extended periods. When the system is allowed to cool, the hydrogels liquify and flow into each other, allowing mixing of the embedded reagents ("ON" state). We tune the hydrogels' LCSTs using NaCl, quantify the NaCl's tuning effect using rheometry, and determine that reactions are triggered reproducibly at temperatures similar to the tuned LCSTs. We also demonstrate generalizability of the concept by exploring situations involving radically different reaction types. This concept therefore constitutes a new approach to autonomous material behavior based on cooling.

Photothermally responsive theranostic nanocomposites for near-infrared light triggered drug release and enhanced synergism of photothermo-chemotherapy for gastric cancer

Near-infrared (NIR) photothermal therapy plays a critical role in the cancer treatment and diagnosis as a promising carcinoma treatment modalities nowadays. However, development of clinical application has been greatly limited due to the inefficient drug release and low tumor accumulation. Herein, we designed a NIR-light triggered indocyanine green (ICG)-based PCL core/P(MEO₂MA-b-HMAM) shell nanocomposites (PPH@ICG) and evaluated their therapeutic effects in vitro and in vivo. The anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5Fu) and the photothermal agent ICG were loaded into a thermo-sensitive micelle (PPH@5Fu@ICG) by self-assembly. The nanoparticles formed were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and fluorescence spectra. The thermo-sensitive copolymer (PPH@5Fu@ICG) showed a great temperature-controlled drug release response with lower critical solution temperature. In vitro cellular uptake and TEM imaging proved that PPH@5Fu@ICG nanoparticles can home into the lysosomal compartments under NIR. Moreover, in gastric tumor-bearing nude mice, PPH@5Fu@ICG + NIR group exhibited excellent improvement in antitumor efficacy based on the NIR-triggered thermo-chemotherapy synergy, both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, the proposed strategy of synergistic photo-hyperthermia chemotherapy effectively reduced the 5Fu dose, toxic or side effect, which could serve as a secure and efficient approach for cancer theranostics.

Super-sensitive bifunctional nanoprobe: Self-assembly of peptide-driven nanoparticles demonstrating tumor fluorescence imaging and therapy

The development of nanomedicine has recently achieved several breakthroughs in the field of cancer treatment; however, biocompatibility and targeted penetration of these nanomaterials remain as limitations, which lead to serious side effects and significantly narrow the scope of their application. The self-assembly of intermediate filaments with arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) peptide (RGD-IFP) was triggered by the hydrophobic cationic molecule 7-amino actinomycin D (7-AAD) to synthesize a bifunctional nanoparticle that could serve as a fluorescent imaging probe to visualize tumor treatment. The designed RGD-IFP peptide possessed the ability to encapsulate 7-AAD molecules through the formation of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions by a one-step method. This fluorescent nanoprobe with RGD peptide could be targeted for delivery into tumor cells and released in acidic environments such as endosomes/lysosomes, ultimately inducing cytotoxicity by arresting tumor cell cycling with inserted DNA. It is noteworthy that the RGD-IFP/7-AAD nanoprobe tail-vein injection approach demonstrated not only high tumor-targeted imaging potential, but also potent antitumor therapeutic effects in vivo. The proposed strategy may be used in peptide-driven bifunctional nanoparticles for precise imaging and cancer therapy.

Enzyme-Induced Transformable Peptide Nanocarriers with Enhanced Drug Permeability and Retention to Improve Tumor Nanotherapy Efficacy

Temporal persistence is as important for nanocarriers as spatial accuracy. However, because of the insufficient aggreagtion and short retention time of chemotherapy drugs in tumors, their clinical application is greatly limited. A drug delivery approach dependent on the sensitivity to an enzyme present in the microenvironment of the tumor is designed to exhibit different sizes in different sites, achieving enhanced drug permeability and retention to improve tumor nanotherapy efficacy. In this work, we report a small-molecule peptide drug delivery system containing both tumor-targeting groups and enzyme response sites. This system enables the targeted delivery of peptide nanocarriers to tumor cells and a unique response to alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in the tumor microenvironment to activate morphological transformation and drug release. The amphiphilic peptide AYR self-aggregated into a spherical nanoparticle structure after encapsulating the lipid-soluble model drug doxorubicin (DOX) and rapidly converted to nanofibers via the induction of ALP. This morphological transformation toward a high aspect ratio allowed rapid, as well as effective drug release to tumor location while enhancing specific toxicity to tumor cells. Interestingly, this "transformer"-like drug delivery strategy can enhance local drug accumulation and effectively inhibit drug efflux. In vitro along with in vivo experiments further proved that the permeability and retention of antitumor drugs in tumor cells and tissues were significantly enhanced to reduce toxic side effects, and the therapeutic effect was remarkably improved compared with that of nondeformable drug-loaded peptide nanocarriers. The developed AYR nanoparticles with the ability to undergo morphological transformation in situ can improve local drug aggregation and retention time at the tumor site. Our findings provide a new and simple method for nanocarrier morphology transformation in novel cancer treatments.

Macrophage membrane camouflaged reactive oxygen species responsive nanomedicine for efficiently inhibiting the vascular intimal hyperplasia

BACKGROUND

Intimal hyperplasia caused by vascular injury is an important pathological process of many vascular diseases, especially occlusive vascular disease. In recent years, Nano-drug delivery system has attracted a wide attention as a novel treatment strategy, but there are still some challenges such as high clearance rate and insufficient targeting.

RESULTS

In this study, we report a biomimetic ROS-responsive MM@PCM/RAP nanoparticle coated with macrophage membrane. The macrophage membrane with the innate "homing" capacity can superiorly regulate the recruitment of MM@PCM/RAP to inflammatory lesion to enhance target efficacy, and can also disguise MM@PCM/RAP nanoparticle as the autologous cell to avoid clearance by the immune system. In addition, MM@PCM/RAP can effectively improve the solubility of rapamycin and respond to the high concentration level of ROS accumulated in pathological lesion for controlling local cargo release, thereby increasing drug availability and reducing toxic side effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings validate that the rational design, biomimetic nanoparticles MM@PCM/RAP, can effectively inhibit the pathological process of intimal injury with excellent biocompatibility.

Emerging targeted drug delivery strategies toward ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is a high-mortality malignancy in women. The contemporary clinical chemotherapy with classic cytotoxic drugs, targeted molecular inhibitors would mostly fail when ovarian cancer cells become drug-resistant or metastasize through the body or when patients bare no more toleration because of strong adverse effects. The past decade has spotted varying targeted delivery systems including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), peptide/folate/aptamer-drug conjugates, polymer-drug conjugates, ligand-functionalized nanomedicines, and dual-targeted nanomedicines that upgrade ovarian cancer chemo- and molecular therapy effectively in preclinical/clinical settings via endowing therapeutic agents selectivity and bypassing drug resistance as well as lessening systemic toxicity. The targeted delivery approaches further provide means to potentiate emergent treatment modalities such as molecular therapy, gene therapy, protein therapy, photodynamic therapy, dual-targeting therapy and combination therapy for ovarian cancer. This review highlights up-to-date development of targeted drug delivery strategies toward advanced, metastatic, relapsed, and drug resistant ovarian cancers.

Novel nanomedicines to overcome cancer multidrug resistance

Chemotherapy remains a powerful tool to eliminate malignant cells. However, the efficacy of chemotherapy is compromised by the frequent emergence of intrinsic and acquired multidrug resistance (MDR). These chemoresistance modalities are based on a multiplicity of molecular mechanisms of drug resistance, including : 1) Impaired drug uptake into cancer cells; 2) Increased expression of ATP-binding cassette efflux transporters; 3) Loss of function of pro-apoptotic factors; 4) Enhanced DNA repair capacity; 5) Qualitative or quantitative alterations of specific cellular targets; 6) Alterations that allow cancer cells to tolerate adverse or stressful conditions; 7) Increased biotransformation or metabolism of anticancer drugs to less active or completely inactive metabolites; and 8) Intracellular and intercellular drug sequestration in well-defined organelles away from the cellular target. Hence, one of the major aims of cancer research is to develop novel strategies to overcome cancer drug resistance. Over the last decades, nanomedicine, which focuses on targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs into tumor tissues using nano-sized formulations, has emerged as a promising tool for cancer treatment. Therefore, nanomedicine has been introduced as a reliable approach to improve treatment efficacy and minimize detrimental adverse effects as well as overcome cancer drug resistance. With rationally designed strategies including passively targeted delivery, actively targeted delivery, delivery of multidrug combinations, as well as multimodal combination therapy, nanomedicine paves the way towards efficacious cancer treatment and hold great promise in overcoming cancer drug resistance. Herein, we review the recent progress of nanomaterials used in medicine, including liposomal nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, inorganic nanoparticles and hybrid nanoparticles, to surmount cancer multidrug resistance. Finally, the future perspectives of the application of nanomedicine to reverse cancer drug resistance will be addressed.

Biodegradable Metal Organic Frameworks for Multimodal Imaging and Targeting Theranostics

Though there already had been notable progress in developing efficient therapeutic strategies for cancers, there still exist many requirements for significant improvement of the safety and efficiency of targeting cancer treatment. Thus, the rational design of a fully biodegradable and synergistic bioimaging and therapy system is of great significance. Metal organic framework (MOF) is an emerging class of coordination materials formed from metal ion/ion clusters nodes and organic ligand linkers. It arouses increasing interest in various areas in recent years. The unique features of adjustable composition, porous and directional structure, high specific surface areas, biocompatibility, and biodegradability make it possible for MOFs to be utilized as nano-drugs or/and nanocarriers for multimodal imaging and therapy. This review outlines recent advances in developing MOFs for multimodal treatment of cancer and discusses the prospects and challenges ahead.

Confocal Raman microspectral analysis and imaging of the drug response of osteosarcoma to cisplatin

Confocal Raman microspectral analysis and imaging were used to elucidate the drug response of osteosarcoma (OS) to cisplatin. Raman spectral data were obtained from OS cells that were untreated (UT group) and treated with 20 µM (20T group) and 40 µM (40T group) cisplatin for 24 hours. Statistical analysis of the changes in specific Raman signals was performed using a one-way ANOVA and multiple Tukey's honest significant difference (HSD) post hoc tests. Principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) was used to highlight the featured cellular drug responses based on the obtained spectral information. For spectral imaging analysis, k-means cluster analysis (KCA) was adopted to clarify the effect of cisplatin dose changes on the subcellular structure and its biochemical composition. The results suggest that the major biochemical changes induced by cisplatin in OS cells undergoing apoptosis are reduced protein and nucleic acid content. Through univariate analysis, the changes in the distribution of nucleic acids in OS cells induced by different doses of cisplatin were obtained. The combination of Raman spectroscopy and multivariate analysis shows that cisplatin mainly acts on the nucleus and causes changes in the secondary structure of proteins. These results indicate that Raman imaging technology has the potential to offer the basis of dose optimization for personalized cancer treatment by helping to understand in vitro cellular drug interactions.

Pharmaceutical strategies in improving anti-tumour efficacy and safety of intraperitoneal therapy for peritoneal metastasis

Introduction: In selected patients with limited peritoneal metastasis (PM), favorable tumor biology, and a good clinical condition, there is an indication for combination of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and subsequent intravenous (IV) or intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy. Compared with IV injection, IP therapy can achieve a high drug concentration within the peritoneal cavity with low systemic toxicity, however, the clinical application of IP chemotherapy is limited by the related abdominal pain, infection, and intolerance.Areas covered:To improve the anti-tumor efficacy and safety of IP therapy, various pharmaceutical strategies have been developed and show promising potential. This review discusses the specialized modification of traditional drug delivery systems and demonstrates the preparation of customized drug carriers for IP therapy, including chemotherapy and gene therapy. IP therapy has important clinical significance in the treatment of PM using novel anti-tumor agents as well as conventional drugs in new applications.Expert opinion: Although IP therapy exhibits good performance both in mouse models and in patients with PM in clinical trials, its clinical application remains limited due to the serious side effects and low acceptability. Further investigations, including pharmaceutical strategies, are needed to develop potential IP therapy, focusing on the efficacy and safety thereof.

Ice Inhibition for Cryopreservation: Materials, Strategies, and Challenges

Cryopreservation technology has developed into a fundamental and important supporting method for biomedical applications such as cell-based therapeutics, tissue engineering, assisted reproduction, and vaccine storage. The formation, growth, and recrystallization of ice crystals are the major limitations in cell/tissue/organ cryopreservation, and cause fatal cryoinjury to cryopreserved biological samples. Flourishing anti-icing materials and strategies can effectively regulate and suppress ice crystals, thus reducing ice damage and promoting cryopreservation efficiency. This review first describes the basic ice cryodamage mechanisms in the cryopreservation process. The recent development of chemical ice-inhibition molecules, including cryoprotectant, antifreeze protein, synthetic polymer, nanomaterial, and hydrogel, and their applications in cryopreservation are summarized. The advanced engineering strategies, including trehalose delivery, cell encapsulation, and bioinspired structure design for ice inhibition, are further discussed. Furthermore, external physical field technologies used for inhibiting ice crystals in both the cooling and thawing processes are systematically reviewed. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives in the field of ice inhibition for high-efficiency cryopreservation are proposed.

Carbon nano-onion-mediated dual targeting of P-selectin and P-glycoprotein to overcome cancer drug resistance

The transmembrane P-glycoprotein (P-gp) pumps that efflux drugs are a major mechanism of cancer drug resistance. They are also important in protecting normal tissue cells from poisonous xenobiotics and endogenous metabolites. Here, we report a fucoidan-decorated silica-carbon nano-onion (FSCNO) hybrid nanoparticle that targets tumor vasculature to specifically release P-gp inhibitor and anticancer drug into tumor cells. The tumor vasculature targeting capability of the nanoparticle is demonstrated using multiple models. Moreover, we reveal the superior light absorption property of nano-onion in the near infrared region (NIR), which enables triggered drug release from the nanoparticle at a low NIR power. The released inhibitor selectively binds to P-gp pumps and disables their function, which improves the bioavailability of anticancer drug inside the cells. Furthermore, free P-gp inhibitor significantly increases the systemic toxicity of a chemotherapy drug, which can be resolved by delivering them with FSCNO nanoparticles in combination with a short low-power NIR laser irradiation.

Nanotechnology in ovarian cancer: Diagnosis and treatment

To overcome the drawbacks of conventional delivery, this review spotlights a number of nanoscale drug delivery systems, including nanoparticles, liposomes, nano micelles, branched dendrimers, nanocapsules, and nanostructured lipid formulations for the targeted therapy of ovarian cancer. These nanoformulations offer numerous advantages to promote therapeutic drug delivery such as nontoxicity, biocompatibility, good biodegradability, increased therapeutic impact than free drugs, and non-inflammatory effects. Importantly, the development of specific ligands functionalized nanoformulations enable preferential targeting of ovarian tumors and eventually amplify the therapeutic potential compared to nonfunctionalized counterparts. Ovarian cancer is typically identified by biomarker assessment such as CA125, HE4, Mucin 1, and prostatic. There is, nevertheless, a tremendous demand for less costly, faster, and compact medical tools, both for timely detection and ovarian cancer control. This paper explored multiple types of tumor marker-based on nanomaterial biosensors. Initially, we mention different forms of ovarian cancer biomarkers involving CA125, human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), mucin 1 (MUC1), and prostate. It is accompanied by a brief description of new nanotechnology methods for diagnosis. Nanobiosensors for evaluating ovarian cancer biomarkers can be categorized based on electrochemical, optical, paper-based, giant magnetoresistive, and lab-on-a-chip devices.

Novel dendritic polyglycerol-conjugated, mesoporous silica-based targeting nanocarriers for co-delivery of doxorubicin and tariquidar to overcome multidrug resistance in breast cancer stem cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR) of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is a major hurdle to chemotherapy, and it is very important to develop CSCs-specific targeted nanocarriers for the treatment of drug resistant CSCs. In this work, we developed CSCs-specific targeted mSiO₂-dPG nanocarriers simultaneous delivery chemotherapy drug DOX along with the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) inhibitor tariquidar (Tar) for enhanced chemotherapy to overcome MDR in breast CSCs. The mSiO₂-dPG nanocarriers possess a high loading capability, excellent pH stimuli-responsive performance, and good biocompatibility. With the help of CSCs-specific targeting and P-gp inhibitor Tar, the accumulation of DOX delivered by the mSiO₂-dPG nanocarriers could be greatly increased in drug resistant three-dimensional mammosphere of breast CSCs, and the chemotherapeutic efficacy against breast CSCs was enhanced. Moreover, the expression of stemness-associated gene and tumorspheres' formation ability was also significantly suppressed, which indicates the excellent capability for overcoming MDR of breast CSCs. Taken together, we developed a CSCs-specific targeted mSiO₂-dPG nanocarriers for co-delivery DOX and Tar, which provide a promising approach to effectively eliminate the CSCs and overcome the MDR of breast CSCs.

NANOPARTICLE-MEDIATED DELIVERY OF CRYOPROTECTANTS FOR CRYOPRESERVATION

Nanotechnology research has continued to garner interest and is investigated across a number of fields and industries, ranging from water treatment to clinical and biomedical applications. In biomedical research, for example, polymeric nanoparticles can be leveraged for controlled delivery of drugs and chemical compounds into cells. In cryobiological applications, polymeric nanoparticles can be utilized to deliver cryoprotectants (CPAs) and other protective agents, particularly those impermeable to the cell membrane, into cells to study their effects on cells during cooling down and warming back and at low temperatures. This perspective will discuss how polymeric nanoparticles have been used in cryobiology, with particular focus on how delivery systems have been specifically developed for low temperature applications and the potential for these systems going forward.

Extracellular Vesicles - Advanced Nanocarriers in Cancer Therapy: Progress and Achievements

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a class of cell-derived, lipid bilayer membrane composed vesicles, and some of them such as exosomes and ectosomes have been proven, playing remarkable roles in transmitting intercellular information, and being involved in each property of cell physiological activities. Nowadays, EVs are considered as potential nanocarriers which could partially resolve the problems of current chemotherapy because of their distinctive advantages. As endogenous membrane encompassed vesicles with nanosize, EVs are able to pass through the natural barriers with prolonged circulation time in vivo and have intrinsic cell targeting properties, they are less toxic, and less immunogenic. Recently, studies focusing on EV-based drug delivery system for cancer therapy have exploded dramatically. This review aims to outline the current applications of EVs as potential nanosized drug carriers in cancer therapy. Firstly, the characteristics and biofunctions of each EV subtype are described. Then the variety of therapeutic cargoes, the loading methods, and the targeting strategy of engineered EVs are emphatically introduced. Thereafter the pros and cons of EVs applied as therapeutic carriers, as well as the future prospects in this field, are discussed.

Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy and Its Role in Overcoming Drug Resistance

Nanotechnology has been extensively studied and exploited for cancer treatment as nanoparticles can play a significant role as a drug delivery system. Compared to conventional drugs, nanoparticle-based drug delivery has specific advantages, such as improved stability and biocompatibility, enhanced permeability and retention effect, and precise targeting. The application and development of hybrid nanoparticles, which incorporates the combined properties of different nanoparticles, has led this type of drug-carrier system to the next level. In addition, nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems have been shown to play a role in overcoming cancer-related drug resistance. The mechanisms of cancer drug resistance include overexpression of drug efflux transporters, defective apoptotic pathways, and hypoxic environment. Nanoparticles targeting these mechanisms can lead to an improvement in the reversal of multidrug resistance. Furthermore, as more tumor drug resistance mechanisms are revealed, nanoparticles are increasingly being developed to target these mechanisms. Moreover, scientists have recently started to investigate the role of nanoparticles in immunotherapy, which plays a more important role in cancer treatment. In this review, we discuss the roles of nanoparticles and hybrid nanoparticles for drug delivery in chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy and describe the targeting mechanism of nanoparticle-based drug delivery as well as its function on reversing drug resistance.

Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy and Its Role in Overcoming Drug Resistance

Nanotechnology has been extensively studied and exploited for cancer treatment as nanoparticles can play a significant role as a drug delivery system. Compared to conventional drugs, nanoparticle-based drug delivery has specific advantages, such as improved stability and biocompatibility, enhanced permeability and retention effect, and precise targeting. The application and development of hybrid nanoparticles, which incorporates the combined properties of different nanoparticles, has led this type of drug-carrier system to the next level. In addition, nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems have been shown to play a role in overcoming cancer-related drug resistance. The mechanisms of cancer drug resistance include overexpression of drug efflux transporters, defective apoptotic pathways, and hypoxic environment. Nanoparticles targeting these mechanisms can lead to an improvement in the reversal of multidrug resistance. Furthermore, as more tumor drug resistance mechanisms are revealed, nanoparticles are increasingly being developed to target these mechanisms. Moreover, scientists have recently started to investigate the role of nanoparticles in immunotherapy, which plays a more important role in cancer treatment. In this review, we discuss the roles of nanoparticles and hybrid nanoparticles for drug delivery in chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy and describe the targeting mechanism of nanoparticle-based drug delivery as well as its function on reversing drug resistance.

Single-Cell Multi-Omics and Its Prospective Application in Cancer Biology

In recent years, the emergence of single-cell omics technologies, which can profile genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and proteomics, has provided unprecedented insights into characteristics of cancer, enabling higher resolution and accuracy to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms relating to tumorigenesis, evolution, metastasis, and immune responses. Single-cell multi-omics technologies, which are developed based on the combination of multiple single-cell mono-omics technologies, can simultaneously analyze RNA expression, single nucleotide polymorphism, epigenetic modification, or protein abundance, enabling the in-depth understanding of gene expression regulatory mechanisms. In this review, the state-of-the-art single-cell multi-omics technologies are summarized and the prospects of their application in cancer biology are discussed.

Harnessed Dopant Block Copolymers Assist Decorating Membrane Pores: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

Self-assembly of asymmetric block copolymers (BCPs) around active pore edges has emerged as an important strategy to produce smart membranes with tunable pathways for solute transport. However, thus far, it is still challenging to manipulate pore shape and functionality for directional transformation under external stimuli. Here, a versatile strategy by mesoscale simulations to design stimuli-responsive pores with various edge decorations in hybrid membranes is reported. Dopant BCPs are used as decorators to stabilize pore edges and extend their function in reconfiguring pores in response to repeated membrane stretching/shrinking caused by external stimuli. The decoration morphologies are predictable since the assemblies of dopant BCPs around pore edges are closely related to their self-assemblies in solution. The coassembly between different BCPs in the hybrid membrane for the control of pore morphology is featured, and the parameter settings, including block incompatibility and molecular architecture for the construction of a specific pore, are determined. Results show that harnessed dopant BCPs in the hybrid membrane can enhance pore formation and induce directional pore shape and functionality transformation. Diversified pore decorations exhibit potential that can be further explored in selective solute transport and the design of stimuli-responsive smart nanodevices.

Cold-Responsive Nanoparticle Enables Intracellular Delivery and Rapid Release of Trehalose for Organic-Solvent-Free Cryopreservation

Conventional cryopreservation of mammalian cells requires the use of toxic organic solvents (e.g., dimethyl sulfoxide) as cryoprotectants. Consequently, the cryopreserved cells must undergo a tedious washing procedure to remove the organic solvents for their further applications in cell-based medicine, and many of the precious cells may be lost or killed during the procedure. Trehalose has been explored as a nontoxic alternative to traditional cryoprotectants. However, mammalian cells do not synthesize trehalose or express trehalose transporters in their membranes, and the lack of an approach for the efficient intracellular delivery of trehalose has been a major hurdle for its use in cell cryopreservation. In this study, a cold-responsive polymer (poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-butyl acrylate)) is utilized to synthesize nanoparticles for the encapsulation and intracellular delivery of trehalose. The trehalose-laden nanoparticles can be efficiently taken up by mammalian cells. The nanoparticles quickly and irreversibly disassemble upon cold treatment, enabling the controlled and rapid release of trehalose from the nanoparticles inside cells. The latter is confirmed by an evident increase in cell volume upon cold treatment. This rapid cold-triggered intracellular release of trehalose is crucial to developing a fast protocol to cryopreserve cells using trehalose. Cells with intracellular trehalose delivered using the nanoparticles show comparable postcryopreservation viability compared to that of cells treated with DMSO, eliminating the need for the tedious and cell-damaging washing procedure required for using the DMSO-cryopreserved cells in vivo. This cold-responsive nanoparticle may greatly facilitate the use of trehalose as a nontoxic cryoprotectant for banking cells and tissues to meet their high demand by modern cell-based medicine.

Carbohydrate Modifications of Neoandrographolide for Improved Reactive Oxygen Species-Mediated Apoptosis through Mitochondrial Pathway in Colon Cancer

Modifications at the carbohydrate moiety of neoandrographolide, isolated from the medicinal plant Andrographis paniculata, result in more potent and less toxic derivatives, namely, 4',6'-benzylidene neoandrographolide (2b) and 4'6'-p-methoxybenzylidene neoandrographolide (2c). These showed improved cytotoxicity against SW-620, PC-3, and A549 cancer cell lines. Nuclear morphology studies were conducted on compound 2b by 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylidole staining and detection of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. It showed an increase in the generation of cellular and mitochondrial ROS level. The probable relation of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2, an apoptosis inhibitor) to B-cell lymphoma-2-associated X protein (Bax, an apoptosis promoter) ratio with caspase-3 (apoptosis coordination enzyme) in the colon cancer cell line SW-620 was investigated, and it was discovered that upon 2b treatment, the expression of caspase-3 Bax increased remarkably. However, in 2b-treated cells, the expression of Bcl-2 was downregulated as compared to untreated cells.

Strategizing biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles to cross the biological barriers for cancer targeting

The biological barriers in the body have been fabricated by nature to protect the body from foreign molecules. The successful delivery of drugs is limited and being challenged by these biological barriers including the gastrointestinal tract, brain, skin, lungs, nose, mouth mucosa, and immune system. In this review article, we envisage to understand the functionalities of these barriers and revealing various drug-loaded biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles to overcome these barriers and deliver the entrapped drugs to cancer targeted site. Apart from it, tissue-specific multifunctional ligands, linkers and transporters when employed imparts an effective active delivery strategy by receptor-mediated transcytosis. Together, these strategies enable to deliver various drugs across the biological membranes for the treatment of solid tumors and malignant cancer.

Intracellular Dynamic Disentangling of Doxorubicin Release from Luminescent Nanogold Carriers by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) under Two-Photon Excitation

There is still a lack of available techniques to follow noninvasively the intracellular processes as well to track or disentangle various signals from the therapeutic agents at the site of action in the target cells. We present here the assessment of the intracellular kinetics of doxorubicin (DOX) and gold nanoparticle (AuNP) carriers by mapping simultaneously fluorescence and photoluminescence signals by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy under two-photon excitation (TPE-FLIM). The new nano-chemotherapeutic system AuNPs@gelatin-hyd-DOX has been fabricated by DOX loading onto the surface of gelatin-biosynthesized AuNPs (AuNPs@gelatin) through a pH-sensitive hydrazone bond. The successful loading of DOX onto the AuNPs was studied by spectroscopic methods and steady-state fluorescence, and the nanosystem pH-responsive character was validated under simulated biological conditions at different pH values (i.e., pH 4.6, 5.3, and 7.4). Considering that the fluorescence lifetime of DOX molecules at a specific point in the cell is a reliable indicator of the discrimination of the different states of the drug in the internalization path, i.e., released versus loaded, the kinetics of AuNPs@gelatin-hyd-DOX cellular uptake and DOX release was compared to that of free DOX, resulting in two different drug internalization pathways. Finally, cell viability tests were conducted against NIH:OVCAR-3 cell line to prove the efficiency of our chemotherapeutic nanosystem. TPE-FLIM technique could be considered promising for noninvasive, high-resolution imaging of cells with improved capabilities over current one-photon-excited FLIM.

Enhanced cancer therapy with cold-controlled drug release and photothermal warming enabled by one nanoplatform

Stimuli-responsive nanoparticles hold great promise for drug delivery to improve the safety and efficacy of cancer therapy. One of the most investigated stimuli-responsive strategies is to induce drug release by heating with laser, ultrasound, or electromagnetic field. More recently, cryosurgery (also called cryotherapy and cryoablation), destruction of diseased tissues by first cooling/freezing and then warming back, has been used to treat various diseases including cancer in the clinic. Here we developed a cold-responsive nanoparticle for controlled drug release as a result of the irreversible disassembly of the nanoparticle when cooled to below ∼10 °C. Furthermore, this nanoparticle can be used to generate localized heating under near infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, which can facilitate the warming process after cooling/freezing during cryosurgery. Indeed, the combination of this cold-responsive nanoparticle with ice cooling and NIR laser irradiation can greatly augment cancer destruction both in vitro and in vivo with no evident systemic toxicity.