Effect of the Structure of Therapeutic Adenosine Analogues on Stability and Surface Electrostatic Potential of their Complexes with Poly(propyleneimine) Dendrimers

Poly(propyleneimine) glycodendrimers are proposed as nanocarriers for triphosphate forms of anticancer adenosine analogues to improve the efficiency of chemotherapy and to overcome drug resistance mechanisms. This approach has proven successful for fludarabine administration-an autonomous way of cellular entry of a nucleotide-dendrimer noncovalent complex enables an increase in the intracellular accumulation and cytotoxic activity of the active metabolite of the drug. However, the attempt to apply an analogous strategy for clofarabine results in the inhibition of drug activity. To better understand this phenomenon, characterization and comparison of drug-dendrimer complexes were needed to indicate the differences in their surface properties and the strengths of fludarabine-dendrimer and clofarabine-dendrimer interactions. Here, zeta potential measurements, ultrafiltration, and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation are applied to determine the surface electrostatic potential and stability of nucleotide-dendrimer formulations. This approach significantly extends the authors' research on the complexation potential of perfectly branched macromolecules, ultimately explaining previously observed differences and their consequences.

Fludarabine-Specific Molecular Interactions with Maltose-Modified Poly(propyleneimine) Dendrimer Enable Effective Cell Entry of the Active Drug Form: Comparison with Clofarabine

Fludarabine is an anticancer antimetabolite essential for modern chemotherapy, but its efficacy is limited due to the complex pharmacokinetics. We demonstrated the potential use of maltose-modified poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer as drug delivery agent to improve the efficiency of therapy with fludarabine. In this study, we elaborated a novel synthesis technique for radioactively labeled fludarabine triphosphate to prove for the first time the direct ability of nucleotide-glycodendrimer complex to enter and kill leukemic cells, without the involvement of membrane nucleoside transporters and intracellular kinases. This will potentially allow to bypass the most common drug resistance mechanisms observed in the clinical setting. Further, we applied surface plasmon resonance and molecular modeling to elucidate the properties of the drug-dendrimer complexes. We showed that clofarabine, a more toxic nucleoside analogue drug, is characterized by significantly different molecular interactions with poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers than fludarabine, leading to different cellular outcomes (decreased rather than increased treatment efficiency). The most probable mechanistic explanation of uniquely dendrimer-enhanced fludarabine toxicity points to a crucial role of both an alternative cellular uptake pathway and the avoidance of intracellular phosphorylation of nucleoside drug form.

Glycodendrimer Nanocarriers for Direct Delivery of Fludarabine Triphosphate to Leukemic Cells: Improved Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Fludarabine

Fludarabine, a nucleoside analogue antimetabolite, has complicated pharmacokinetics requiring facilitated transmembrane transport and intracellular conversion to triphosphate nucleotide form (Ara-FATP), causing it to be susceptible to emergence of drug resistance. We are testing a promising strategy to improve its clinical efficacy by direct delivery of Ara-FATP utilizing a biocompatible glycodendrimer nanocarrier system. Here, we present results of a proof-of-concept experiment in several in vitro-cultured leukemic cell lines (CCRF, THP-1, U937) using noncovalent complexes of maltose-modified poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer and fludarabine triphosphate. We show that Ara-FATP has limited cytotoxic activity toward investigated cells relative to free nucleoside (Ara-FA), but complexation with the glycodendrimer (which does not otherwise influence cellular metabolism) drastically increases its toxicity. Moreover, we show that transport via hENT1 is a limiting step in Ara-FA toxicity, while complexation with dendrimer allows Ara-FATP to kill cells even in the presence of a hENT1 inhibitor. Thus, the use of glycodendrimers for drug delivery would allow us to circumvent naturally occurring drug resistance due to decreased transporter activity. Finally, we demonstrate that complex formation does not change the advantageous multifactorial intracellular pharmacodynamics of Ara-FATP, preserving its high capability to inhibit DNA and RNA synthesis and induce apoptosis via the intrinsic pathway. In comparison to other nucleoside analogue drugs, fludarabine is hereby demonstrated to be an optimal candidate for maltose glycodendrimer-mediated drug delivery in antileukemic therapy.

Characterization of oligosaccharide-functionalized hyperbranched poly(ethylene imine) and their complexes with retinol in aqueous solution

Structure, internal density distribution, and size of hyperbranched poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) functionalized with various amounts of maltose (PEI-Mal) in phosphate buffer were studied by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The value of pH was varied in the range from 3 to 9. Virtually no effect of pH on the nanostructure was found in this interval. The SAXS results revealed a broad segmental radial density distribution, i.e. a "fluffy" globular structure rather than a distinct core-shell structure with a high-density compact core and a low-density corona. This suggests that the maltose units are rather evenly distributed both in the interior and on the surface of the species with a PEI-core of molar mass of 25,000g/mol. The DLS measurements showed that the overall size of the PEI-Mal derivatives increased as the number of maltose units in the PEI-Mal structures rises. The interaction of the hydrophobic model drug retinol with PEI or PEI-Mal derivatives was also investigated. The UV-visible spectroscopy results disclosed that the solubility of retinol in the phosphate buffer is very poor and it takes a very long time to solubilize retinol. Moreover, retinol induces aggregation of dendritic glycopolymers where the growth of aggregates occurs continuously over several days and then remains virtually constant.

Dendritic glycopolymers based on dendritic polyamine scaffolds: view on their synthetic approaches, characteristics and potential for biomedical applications

The potential of dendritic glycopolymers based on dendritic polyamine scaffolds for biomedical applications is presented and compared with that of the structurally related anti-adhesive dendritic glycoconjugates.

An off-the-shelf sensing system for physiological phosphates

An off-the-shelf supramolecular sensing system was designed to discriminate biologically relevant phosphates in neutral water using multivariate data analysis. The system is based on an indicator displacement assay comprising only two unmodified commercially available components: a dendritic poly-electrolyte and a common fluorescent dye. Effective discrimination of nucleotide diphosphates and inorganic diphosphate was achieved through principal component analysis (PCA).