Theranostics 2017; 7(15):3781-3793. doi:10.7150/thno.20892 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of TCM Evaluation and Translational Research, School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, China
2. CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China
*Contributed equally to this work.
A programmed drug delivery system that can achieve sequential release of multiple therapeutics under different stimulus holds great promise to enhance the treatment efficacy and overcome multi-drug resistance (MDR) in tumor. Herein, multi-organelle-targeted and pH/ cytochrome c (Cyt c) dual-responsive nanoparticles were designed for combination therapy on resistant tumor. In this system (designated DGLipo NPs), doxorubicin (Dox) was intercalated into the DNA duplex containing a Cyt c aptamer, which subsequently loaded in the dendrigraftpoly-L-lysines (DGL) cores of DGLipo NPs, while cyclopeptide RA-V was doped into the pH-sensitive liposomal shells. After dual modification with c(RGDfK) and mitochondria-penetrating peptide (MPP), DGLipo NPs could successively deliver the two drugs into lysosome and mitochondria of cancer cells, and achieve sequential drug release in virtue of the unique characteristic of these two organelles. The organelle-specific and spatiotemporally controlled release of Dox and RA-V led to enhanced therapeutic outcomes in MDR tumor. More significantly, the DGLipo NPs were successfully applied to monitor Cyt c release during mitochondria-mediated apoptotic process. This work represents a versatile strategy for precise combination therapy against resistant tumor with spatiotemporal control, and provides a potential tool for Cyt c-related apoptotic studies.
Keywords: cancer, sequential drug delivery, combination therapy, cytochrome c, cyclopeptide RA-V, doxorubicin