Photo-crosslinked and esterase-sensitive polymersome for improved antitumor effect of water-soluble chemotherapeutics

Mitochondria-targeted vitamin E succinate delivery for reversal of multidrug resistance

Inducing mitochondrial malfunction is an appealing strategy to overcome tumor multidrug resistance (MDR). Reported here a versatile mitochondrial-damaging molecule, vitamin E succinate (VES), is creatively utilized to assist MDR reversal of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl) via a nanovesicle platform self-assembled from amphiphilic polyphosphazenes containing pH-sensitive 1H-benzo-[d]imidazol-2-yl) methanamine (BIMA) groups. Driven by multiple non-covalent interactions, VES is fully introduced into the hydrophobic membrane of DOX·HCl-loaded nanovesicles with loading content of 23.5%. The incorporated VES also offers robust anti-leakage property toward DOX·HCl under normal physiological conditions. More importantly, upon release within acidic tumor cells, VES can target mitochondria and result in various dysfunctions including excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ_m) loss, and inhibited adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis, which contribute to cell apoptosis and insufficient energy supply for drug efflux pumps. Consequently, the killing-effect of DOX·HCl is significantly enhanced toward drug resistant cancer cells at the optimal mass ratio of DOX·HCl to VES. Further in vivo antitumor investigation on nude mice bearing xenograft drug-resistant human chronic myelogenous leukemia K562/ADR tumors verifies the extremely enhanced anti-tumor efficacy of the dual drug-loaded nanovesicle with the tumor inhibition rate (TIR) of 82.38%. Collectively, this study provides a s safe, facile and promising strategy for both precise drug delivery and MDR eradication to improve cancer therapy.

Esterase-Responsive Polypeptide Vesicles as Fast-Response and Sustained-Release Nanocompartments for Fibroblast-Exempt Drug Delivery

Enzyme-responsive polypeptide vesicles have attracted considerable attention for precision theranostics because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and unique secondary conformation transition triggered by the catalytic actions of enzymes. These promising potentials of polypeptide vesicles could be limited in a drug delivery system by the very slow enzyme diffusion rate into vesicles that could reduce the efficacy of the drug. On the other hand, stimuli-responsive polymeric vesicles that respond to stimuli can undergo microstructure destruction for the burst release of drugs, which would penetrate through the membrane of dead cells and the tumor extracellular matrix, inducing acute toxicity to neighboring cells. Here, we designed amphiphilic PEG-polypeptide copolymers containing esterase-labile carbamate-caged primary amines. It was found that the diblock can self-assemble into vesicular structures. Esterase-triggered self-immolative decaging reactions could quickly release the primary amine moiety of monomers that can undergo an amidation reaction for transition of the bilayer of vesicles from hydrophobic to partially hydrophilic. This esterase-responsive process retains the nanostructure of vesicles but permeabilizes the vesicle membrane, which can afford the sustained release of encapsulating drugs. These esterase-responsive polypeptide vesicles mediate selective cytotoxicity in cancer cells with high esterase expression over normal fibroblasts with low esterase, enabling the potent anticancer chemotherapy with minimized side effects.

Application and design of esterase-responsive nanoparticles for cancer therapy

Nanoparticles have been developed for tumor treatment due to the enhanced permeability and retention effects. However, lack of specific cancer cells selectivity results in low delivery efficiency and undesired side effects. In that case, the stimuli-responsive nanoparticles system designed for the specific structure and physicochemical properties of tumors have attracted more and more attention of researchers. Esterase-responsive nanoparticle system is widely used due to the overexpressed esterase in tumor cells. For a rational designed esterase-responsive nanoparticle, ester bonds and nanoparticle structures are the key characters. In this review, we overviewed the design of esterase-responsive nanoparticles, including ester bonds design and nano-structure design, and analyzed the fitness of each design for different application. In the end, the outlook of esterase-responsive nanoparticle is looking forward.