Liposome-Coated Arsenic-Manganese Complex for Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Synergistic Therapy Against Carcinoma

Maximizing arsenic trioxide's anticancer potential: Targeted nanocarriers for solid tumor therapy

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has gained significant attention due to its promising therapeutic effects in treating different diseases, particularly acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Its potent anticancer mechanisms have been extensively studied. Despite the great efficacy ATO shows in fighting cancers, drawbacks in the clinical use are obvious, especially for solid tumors, which include rapid renal clearance and short half-life, severe adverse effects, and high toxicity to normal cells. Recently, the emergence of nanomedicine offers a potential solution to these limitations. The enhanced biocompatibility, excellent targeting capability, and desirable effectiveness have attracted much interest. Therefore, we summarized various nanocarriers for targeted delivery of ATO to solid tumors. We also provided detailed anticancer mechanisms of ATO in treating cancers, its clinical trials and shortcomings as well as the combination therapy of ATO and other chemotherapeutic agents for reduced drug resistance and synergistic effects. Finally, the future study direction and prospects were also presented.

Carboxymethyl chitosan and octadecylamine-coated liposome-containing WPTS: design, optimization, and evaluation

Liposomes (LPs) are a delivery system for stabilizing pharmaceuticals with limited use due to their propensity to congregate and fuse. A proposed method of addressing these problems is polymer coating. In this study, the potential of octadecylamine (ODA)-coated liposomes and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS/ODA-LPs) for enhancing Wacao pentacyclic triterpene saponin (WPTS) transport capacity was investigated. CMCS/ODA-LPs were produced by electrostatic adsorption and thin-film hydration. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to enhance the process and encapsulation efficiency (EE) for optimum drug encapsulation efficiency. The synthesized WPTS-CMCS/ODA-LPs were uniformly dispersed in a circular shape, and during 14 days of storage at 4 °C, the particle size and morphology did not significantly change. Vesicle size, zeta potential, polydispersity index (PDI), and entrapment efficiency (%) were 179.1 ± 7.31 nm, -29.6 ± 1.35 mV, 0.188 ± 0.052, and 75.62 ± 0.43, respectively. The hemolysis test revealed that WPTS-CMCS/ODA-LPs were sufficiently biocompatible. Compared to WPTS-LPs, WPTS-CMCS/ODA-LPs consistently showed a much more significant cytotoxic effect on cancer cells. Early and WPTS-CMCS/ODA-LPs-induced apoptosis resulted in almost seven times more cell death than the control. Compared to physiological pH 7.3, the pH-sensitive CMCS coupled LPs increased drug release at acidic pH 6.5. These findings suggest the efficacy of pH-sensitive CMCS/ODA-LPs as a medication delivery method for WPTS.

Enzalutamide combination with Arsenic trioxide suppresses the progression of castration-resistant prostate cancer

The study aimed to investigate the anti-tumor effects and underlying mechanisms of Enzalutamide (ENZ) and Arsenic trioxide (ATO) co-treatment on castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The effects on C4-2B cells were initially evaluated by colony formation assay, FACS analysis, and DNA fragmentation detection. Bioinformatics methods including mRNA-sequencing and gene enrichment analysis were used to screen the underlying target genes and pathways related to their actions. Western blot was employed to assess the expression levels of protein-related angiogenesis, apoptosis, DNA repair, and the screened genes. Finally, the effects were further verified in subcutaneous tumor models and tissue sections from the xenografts. It was found that not only could ENZ combination with ATO significantly inhibit cell proliferation and angiogenesis, but also induce cell arrest and apoptosis in C4-2B cells. In addition, interruption of the DNA damage repair-related pathways also occurred as a result of their combined effects. Western blot analysis further suggested that proteins involved in these pathways, especially P-ATR and P-CHEK1 were significantly reduced. In addition, their combination also inhibited the tumor growth of xenografts. Altogether, ENZ combination with ATO synergistically improved the therapeutic effects and suppressed CRPC progression through regulation of the ATR-CHEK1-CDC25C pathway.

Development and in functional study of a bi-specific sustained release drug-loaded nano-liposomes for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Lenvatinib (LEN) is a first-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but has a larger adverse effect profile. In this study, we developed a liposome with drug-carrying function and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging function to investigate the targeted drug-carrying function and MRI tracing ability of liposome for HCC.

METHODS

Magnetic nano-liposomes (MNL) with dual targeting function of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and vimentin and capable of encapsulating LEN drugs were prepared. The characterization performance, drug loading efficiency and cytotoxicity of EpCAM/vimentin-LEN-MNL were tested, and the dual-targeting slow release drug loading function and MRI tracing ability were investigated in cellular and animal models.

RESULTS

EpCAM/vimentin-LEN-MNL has a mean particle size of 218.37 ± 5.13 nm and a mean potential of 32.86 ± 4.62 mV, and is spherical in shape and can be uniformly dispersed in solution. The encapsulation rate was 92.66 ± 0.73% and the drug loading rate was 9.35 ± 0.16%. It has low cytotoxicity, can effectively inhibit HCC cell proliferation and promote HCC cell apoptosis, and has specific targeting function and MRI tracing ability for HCC cells.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, an HCC-specific dual-targeted sustained-release drug delivery liposome with dual-targeted recognition and sensitive MRI tracer was successfully prepared, which provides an important scientific basis for maximizing the multiple effects of nano-carriers in tumor diagnosis and treatment.

Nanocarrier-based delivery of arsenic trioxide for hepatocellular carcinoma therapy

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) poses a severe threat to human health and economic development. Despite many attempts at HCC treatment, most are inevitably affected by the genetic instability and variability of tumor cells. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has shown to be effective in HCC. However, time-consuming challenges, especially the optimal concentration in tumor tissue and bioavailability of ATO, remain to be overcome for its transition from the bench to the bedside. To bypass these issues, nanotechnology-based delivery systems have been developed for prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment in recent years. This article is a systematic overview of the latest contributions and detailed insights into ATO-loaded nanocarriers, with particular attention paid to strategies for improving the efficacy of nanocarriers of ATO.

Platinum-based nanocomposites loaded with MTH1 inhibitor amplify oxidative damage for cancer therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising therapeutic strategy for tumor ablation by generating highly toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) to damage DNA and other biomacromolecules. However, the local hypoxic microenvironment of the tumor and the presence of ROS-defensing system, such as the mobilization of mutt homolog 1 (MTH1) to sanitize ROS-oxidized nucleotide pool, severely limit the efficiency of PDT. Therefore, a novel tumor ablation strategy was developed that not only focused on the enhancement of ROS generation but also weakened the ROS-defensing system by inhibiting MTH1 enzyme activity. In our work, a simple one-step reduction approach was applied to enable platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) with catalase activity to grow in situ in the nanochannels of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). After physical encapsulation of photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) and MTH1 inhibitor TH588, the drug loading nanoplatform was modified with an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) functionalized liposome shell, resulting in the fabrication of amplified oxidative damage nanoplatform MSN-Pt@Ce6/TH588 @Liposome-RGD (MPCT@Li-R). The prepared MPCT@Li-R NPs could continuously catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) into oxygen (O₂) in tumor, thus promoting the generation of singlet oxygen during PDT process for improved oxidative damage of bases. Simultaneously, acid responsive released TH588 hindered MTH1-mediated scavenging of oxidative bases, further aggravating DNA oxidative damage. Consequently, this cascade therapy strategy exhibited excellent tumor suppression efficiency both in vitro and in vivo.

Arsenic trioxide and Erlotinib loaded in RGD-modified nanoliposomes for targeted combination delivery to PC3 and PANC-1 cell lines

During the past few years, advances in drag delivery have provided many opportunities in the treatment of various diseases and cancer. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) and Erlotinib (Erlo) are two drugs, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat cancer, but their use is limited in terms of the toxicity of ATO and the low solubility of Erlo. This study aimed to prepare arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-decorated nanoliposomes (NLPs) containing Erlo and ATO (NLPs-ATO-Erlo-RGD) to increase the solubility and reduce the toxicity of Erlo and ATO for cancer treatment. The results of transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering showed that NLPs were synthesized uniformly, with spherical shape morphology and particle sizes between 140 and 160 nm. High-performance liquid chromatography and ICP-MS results showed that about 90% of the drug was loaded in the NLPs. In comparison with NLPs-ATO-Erlo, NLPs-ATO-Erlo-RGD demonstrated considerable toxicity against the αvβ3 overexpressing PC3 cell line in the MTT experiment. It had no effect on the PANC-1 cell line. In addition, apoptosis assays using Annexin V/PI demonstrated that NLPs-ATO-Erlo-RGD generated the highest apoptotic rates in PC3 cells when compared with NLPs-ATO-Erlo and the combination of free ATO and Erlo. Furthermore, treatment with NLPs-ATO-Erlo-RGD in (p < 0.05) PC3 cell line significantly reduced EGFR level. It is concluded NLPs-ATO-Erlo-RGD as a novel drug delivery system may be a promising platform for the treatment of cancer.

Current Advances of Nanomedicines Delivering Arsenic Trioxide for Enhanced Tumor Therapy

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is one of the first-line chemotherapeutic drugs for acute promyelocytic leukemia. Its anti-cancer activities against various human neoplastic diseases have been extensively studied. However, the clinical use of ATO for solid tumors is limited, and these limitations are because of severe systemic toxicity, low bioavailability, and quick renal elimination before it reaches the target site. Although without much success, several efforts have been made to boost ATO bioavailability toward solid tumors without raising its dose. It has been found that nanomedicines have various advantages for drug delivery, including increased bioavailability, effectiveness, dose-response, targeting capabilities, and safety as compared to traditional drugs. Therefore, nanotechnology to deliver ATO to solid tumors is the main topic of this review, which outlines the previous and present medical applications of ATO. We also summarised ATO anti-cancer mechanisms, limitations, and outcomes of combinatorial treatment with chemo agents. As a result, we strongly recommend conducting pre-clinical and clinical studies of ATO, especially nano-system-based ones that might lead to a novel combination therapy for cancer treatment with high efficacy, bioavailability, and low toxicity for cancer patients.

Mineral medicine: from traditional drugs to multifunctional delivery systems

Mineral drugs are an important constituent of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Taking minerals that contain heavy metals as drugs is a very national characteristic part of TCM. However, the safety and scientific nature of mineral drugs are controversial owing to their heavy metals and strong toxicity. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized arsenic trioxide (ATO) as first-line therapy for acute promyelocytic leukemia. This makes the development and utilization of mineral drugs become a research hotspot. The development of nanomedicine has found a great prospect of mineral drugs in nano-delivery carriers. And that will hold promise to address the numerous biological barriers facing mineral drug formulations. However, the studies on mineral drugs in the delivery system are few at present. There is also a lack of a detailed description of mineral drug delivery systems. In this review, the advanced strategies of mineral drug delivery systems in tumor therapy are summarized. In addition, the therapeutic advantages and research progress of novel mineral drug delivery systems are also discussed. Here, we hope that this will provide a useful reference for the design and application of new mineral drug delivery systems.

Chemodynamic Therapy via Fenton and Fenton-Like Nanomaterials: Strategies and Recent Advances

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), a novel cancer therapeutic strategy defined as the treatment using Fenton or Fenton-like reaction to produce •OH in the tumor region, was first proposed by Bu, Shi, and co-workers in 2016. Recently, with the rapid development of Fenton and Fenton-like nanomaterials, CDT has attracted tremendous attention because of its unique advantages: 1) It is tumor-selective with low side effects; 2) the CDT process does not depend on external field stimulation; 3) it can modulate the hypoxic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment; 4) the treatment cost of CDT is low. In addition to the Fe-involved CDT strategies, the Fenton-like reaction-mediated CDT strategies have also been proposed, which are based on many other metal elements including copper, manganese, cobalt, titanium, vanadium, palladium, silver, molybdenum, ruthenium, tungsten, cerium, and zinc. Moreover, CDT has been combined with other therapies like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, phototherapy, sonodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy for achieving enhanced anticancer effects. Besides, there have also been studies that extend the application of CDT to the antibacterial field. This review introduces the latest advancements in the nanomaterials-involved CDT from 2018 to the present and proposes the current limitations as well as future research directions in the related field.

Advances in Nanoliposomes for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer

The mortality rate of liver cancer is gradually increasing worldwide due to the increasing risk factors such as fatty liver, diabetes, and alcoholic cirrhosis. The diagnostic methods of liver cancer include ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), among others. The treatment of liver cancer includes surgical resection, transplantation, ablation, and chemoembolization; however, treatment still faces multiple challenges due to its insidious development, high rate of recurrence after surgical resection, and high failure rate of transplantation. The emergence of liposomes has provided new insights into the treatment of liver cancer. Due to their excellent carrier properties and maneuverability, liposomes can be used to perform a variety of functions such as aiding in imaging diagnoses, combinatorial therapies, and integrating disease diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, we further discuss such advantages.

Manganese in Diagnostics: A Preformulatory Study

This investigation aims to find lipid-based nanosystems to be used as tools to deliver manganese for diagnostic purposes in multimodal imaging techniques. In particular, the study describes the production and characterization of aqueous dispersions of anionic liposomes as delivery systems for two model manganese-based compounds, namely manganese chloride and manganese acetylacetonate. Negatively charged liposomes were obtained using four different anionic surfactants, namely sodium docusate (SD), N-lauroylsarcosine (NLS), Protelan AG8 (PAG) and sodium lauroyl lactylate (SLL). Liposomes were produced by the direct hydration method followed by extrusion and characterized in terms of size, polydispersity, surface charge and stability over time. After extrusion, liposomes are homogeneous and monodispersed with an average diameter not exceeding 200 nm and a negative surface charge as confirmed by ζ potential measurement. Moreover, as indicated by atomic absorption spectroscopy analyses, the loading of manganese-based compounds was almost quantitative. Liposomes containing NLS or SLL were the most stable over time and the presence of manganese-based compounds did not affect their size distribution. Liposomes containing PAG and SD were instable and therefore discarded. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the selected anionic liposomes was evaluated by MTT assay on human keratinocyte. The obtained results highlighted that the toxicity of the formulations is dose dependent.