脂质体在抗癌药物给药系统中的研究和应用

癌症,是现今威胁人类健康的一大杀手,目前常规的治疗手段之一是予以大剂量的化疗药物进行治疗。但大多数抗癌药物因具有广泛而强烈的细胞毒性,在杀伤癌细胞的同时也无选择性的杀伤了正常人体细胞,使得患者在接受治疗的同时承受了较大的痛苦,降低了癌症患者的生存质量。因而在药剂学研究中,须以提高药效、增强靶向性及降低毒副作用等为目标,合理地选择和开发抗癌药物给药系统。自脂质体作为新型药物传递技术引入癌症治疗以来,因其独特的理化性质和递药机理,高效低毒地递送抗癌药物至病灶,因而成为现今抗癌药物给药系统研究中的热点。本文结合国内外的相关资料和最新报道,综述了脂质体抗癌药物的递药优势、研究进展与存在的问题,并在分析了产业化现状的基础上,对这一新型给药系统在抗癌药物递送领域中的发展做一展望。     

Tumor Endothelial Cell-Specific Drug Delivery System Using Apelin-Conjugated Liposomes

Background

A drug delivery system specifically targeting endothelial cells (ECs) in tumors is required to prevent normal blood vessels from being damaged by angiogenesis inhibitors. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether apelin, a ligand for APJ expressed in ECs when angiogenesis is taking place, can be used for targeting drug delivery to ECs in tumors.

Methods and Results

Uptake of apelin via APJ stably expressed in NIH-3T3 cells was investigated using TAMRA (fluorescent probe)-conjugated apelin. Both long and short forms of apelin (apelin 36 and apelin 13) were taken up, the latter more effectively. To improve efficacy of apelin- liposome conjugates, we introduced cysteine, with its sulfhydryl group, to the C terminus of apelin 13, resulting in the generation of apelin 14. In turn, apelin 14 was conjugated to rhodamine-encapsulating liposomes and administered to tumor-bearing mice. In the tumor microenvironment, we confirmed that liposomes were incorporated into the cytoplasm of ECs. In contrast, apelin non-conjugated liposomes were rarely found in the cytoplasm of ECs. Moreover, non-specific uptake of apelin-conjugated liposomes was rarely detected in other normal organs.

Conclusions

ECs in normal organs express little APJ; however, upon hypoxic stimulation, such as in tumors, ECs start to express APJ. The present study suggests that apelin could represent a suitable tool to effectively deliver drugs specifically to ECs within tumors.     

Targeted Delivery of Drugs and DNA with Liposomes

Abstract

This presentation is divided into three parts: long-circulating liposomes, immunoliposomes and gene transfer with liposomes. The mechanism of action for the poly(ethylene glycol)-phospholipid conjugates to prolong the circulation time of liposomes can be understood on the basis of steric barrier activity imposed by the flexible PEG chains on the liposome surface. The action of ganglioside GM₁, on the other hand, probably involves specific interactions with serum protein(s). Immunoliposomes can efficiently bind with the target only if the target is readily accessible and the liposomes stay in the circulation for a relatively long period of time. Coating the liposome surface with PEG chains or GM₁ enhances the target binding of immunoliposomes, except when PEG of greater than 5000 dalton is used. In this case, immunoliposome binding to the target is sterically hindered by the long PEG chains. To overcome the problem, antibody molecule is conjugated to the distal end of the PEG chain. This approach works well except that the liver uptake of immunoliposomes is somewhat enhanced. For the delivery of DNA into cells, a novel cationic amphiphile (DC-chol) is synthesized and is now used in clinical trials of gene therapy for melanoma. Current effort is concentrated on the means to enhance the level and duration of transgene expression.     

A Potent Anticancer Agent of Shikonin Derivative Targeting Tubulin

In this study, a shikonin ester derivative, compound 3g , was selected to evaluate its anticancer activities and we found that compound 3g exhibited better antitubulin activities against the human HepG2 cell line with an IC₅₀ value of 1.097 μM. Furthermore, the inhibition of tubulin polymerization results indicated that compound 3g demonstrated the most potent antitubulin activity (IC₅₀ = 13.88), which was compared with shikonin and colchicine as positive controls (IC₅₀ = 25.28 μM and 22.56 μM), respectively. Compound 3g was simulated to have good binding site with tubulin and arrested the cell cycle at G2/M phase, which also induces apoptosis in HepG2 cells, in which P53 and members of Bcl‐2 protein family were both involved in the progress of apoptosis revealed by western blot. Confocal microscopy observations revealed compound 3g targeted tubulin and altered its polymerization by interfering with microtubule organization. Based on these results, compound 3g functions as a potent anticancer agent targeting tubulin. Chirality 27:274–280, 2015.. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Selective DNA Delivery to Tumor Cells Using an Oligoarginine-LTVSPWY Peptide

DNA therapy for cancer requires efficient, selective and safe DNA delivery systems. Compared with other non-viral methods such as lipid or polymer-based DNA delivery vectors, peptide-based DNA delivery systems are biocompatible and biodegradable, which leads to lower immunogenicity and lower toxicity. Moreover, peptide vectors are easier to produce and their compositions easier to control because solid-phase peptide synthesis has been extensively developed. However, peptide-based systems for DNA delivery toward special tumor cells or tissues are still lacking. In this study, we constructed a non-viral 9rR-LTVSPWY peptide-based DNA delivery system and showed that it is able to efficiently and selectively transfect DNA into targeted tumor cells. This work presents a novel strategy for tumor cell-specific DNA delivery and a reference for designing more efficient DNA delivery systems targeted towards various types of cancer.     

Targeted Gene Delivery to MCF-7 Cells Using Peptide-Conjugated Polyethylenimine

Specific and effective delivery of drugs and genes to cancer cells are the major issues in successful cancer treatment. Recently, targeted cancer gene therapy has been emerged as a main technology for the treatment of different types of cancers. Among various synthetic carriers, polyethylenimine is one of the most well-known polymers for gene delivery. In this study, we conjugated phage-derived peptide (DMPGTVLP) to polyethylenimine (10 kDa) via disulfide bonds for targeted gene delivery into breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7). As negative-control cells, we used non-related hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). Peptide-conjugated polyplex exhibited low cytotoxicity and significantly increased the transfection efficiency in comparison with unmodified polyethylenimine. Therefore, the peptide-modified vector can be used as a good targeting agent for gene or drug delivery into breast adenocarcinoma cells.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1208/s12249-014-0208-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.KEY WORDS: breast cancer, gene therapy, phage-derived peptide, polyethylenimine     

以微小RNA作为新型标志物检测循环肿瘤细胞及其临床意义

循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cell,CTC）是随血液循环一起转运的实体肿瘤细胞,与实体肿瘤的发展、转移、复发和预后等关系密切。然而,CTC数量的稀少使有效检测CTC具有较大的挑战性。微小RNA（microRNA,miRNA）作为一类新发现的基因表达调控分子,在肿瘤的发生、发展、转归等过程中起着重要的作用。CTC关联性miRNA的研究为CTC的检测和肿瘤的诊治开创了新思路。该文介绍了CTC的临床意义和主要分析方法,在CTC关联性miRNA与肿瘤诊断、治疗和预后等方面总结了这类新型肿瘤细胞标志物的研究进展。     

Tumor Specific Peptides Selected for Targeted Delivery of Therapeutic Agents to Glioma Human Cells

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Brain tumors are among the most intractable types of malignant neoplasms. Despite advances in the treatment of cancer, in particular, the development of...     

外泌体靶向递药在肿瘤治疗中的进展

外泌体是由细胞分泌、粒径为30～ 150 nm的纳米囊泡.外泌体具有优越的生物相容性、良好的载药功能以及便于修饰的膜表面,是一种具有潜力的药物递送载体.在肿瘤治疗研究中,可利用具有靶向识别功能的外泌体来降低脱靶效应,减少不良反应,达到增强治疗效果的目的 .归纳了用不同修饰方法增强外泌体靶向性的研究进展,总结了近五年来利...     

F16,一种以线粒体为靶点的抗癌分子

寻找以线粒体为靶点的抗癌新药,是近年来的研究热点。研究在探讨HER-2／ErbB-2下游信号传导通路的过程中,发现了一种新的抗癌分子——F16。这是一种高度疏水、电子移位亲脂性阳离子,能够靶向聚集于肿瘤细胞线粒体基质内,引起线粒体渗透性转换孔开放,导致肿瘤细胞凋亡;同时,在肿瘤细胞过度表达抗凋亡蛋白的情况下,能够通过干扰肿瘤细胞能量代谢、增加活性氧中间产物产生等途径,诱导肿瘤细胞坏死。     

Addressing Liver Fibrosis with Liposomes Targeted to Hepatic Stellate Cells

Liver fibrosis is a chronic disease that results from hepatitis B and C infections, alcohol abuse or metabolic and genetic disorders. Ultimately, progression of fibrosis leads to cirrhosis, a stage of the disease characterized by failure of the normal liver functions. Currently, the treatment of liver fibrosis is mainly based on the removal of the underlying cause of the disease and liver transplantation, which is the only treatment for patients with advanced fibrosis. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are considered to be key players in the development of liver fibrosis. Chronically activated HSC produces large amounts of extracellular matrix and enhance fibrosis by secreting a broad spectrum of cytokines that exert pro-fibrotic actions in other cells, and in an autocrine manner perpetuate their own activation. Therefore, therapeutic interventions that inhibit activation of HSC and its pro-fibrotic activities are currently under investigation worldwide. In the present study we applied targeted liposomes as drug carriers to HSC in the fibrotic liver and explored the potential of these liposomes in antifibrotic therapies. Moreover, we investigated effects of bioactive compounds delivered by these liposomes on the progression of liver fibrosis. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that lipid-based drug carriers can be selectively delivered to HSC in the fibrotic liver. By incorporating the bioactive lipid DLPC, these liposomes can modulate different processes such as inflammation and fibrogenesis in the fibrotic liver. This dual functionality of liposomes as a drug carrier system with intrinsic biological effects may be exploited in new approaches to treat liver fibrosis.     

Targeted Antitumor Drug Delivery to Glioblastoma Multiforme Cells

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Currently, brain tumors are becoming more common and their clinical picture is aggravated by serious complications. According to the statistics of the...     

Targeted Delivery of Nucleic Acids by Folate-Containing Liposomes into KB-3-1 and HEK 293 Cells

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Targeted cationic liposomes containing folate lipoconjugates with spacer groups of various lengths and natures were prepared; their physicochemical...     

病毒颗粒:药物靶向传递领域中的新型载体

由于具有高效靶向药物传递的潜力,病毒颗粒已成为药物和生命科学领域的研究焦点.病毒颗粒具有病毒性载体和非病毒性载体的优点,同时克服了两者的局限性.病毒颗粒药物传递系统具有无毒、生物相容性、生物可降解性和非自动免疫等特点.研究表明,病毒颗粒能够在细胞间转运多种具有生物活性的分子,例如核酸或者基因、多肽、蛋白质以及其它抗癌药物等,因此在疾病治疗方面可能具有重要作用.如何制备携带有生物活性材料和治疗试剂的病毒颗粒和确定病毒颗粒药物的最佳剂型是目前该领域中挑战性的课题.本文综述了病毒颗粒技术多方面的特征及应用前景.     

Targeted Anticancer Drug Delivery Using Chitosan,Carbon Quantum Dots,and Aptamers to Deliver Ganoderic Acid and 5-Fluorouracil

Breast cancer is a malignancy that affects mostly females and is among the most lethal types of cancer. The ligand-functionalized nanoparticles used in the nano-drug delivery system offer enormous potential for cancer treatments. This work devised a promising approach to increase drug loading efficacy and produce sustained release of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and Ganoderic acid (GA) as model drugs for breast cancer. Chitosan, aptamer, and carbon quantum dot (CS/Apt/COQ) hydrogels were initially synthesized as a pH-sensitive and biocompatible delivery system. Then, CS/Apt/COQ NPs loaded with 5-FU-GA were made using the W/O/W emulsification method. FT-IR, XRD, DLS, zeta potentiometer, and SEM were used to analyze NP's chemical structure, particle size, and shape. Cell viability was measured using MTT assays in vitro using the MCF-7 cell lines. Real-time PCR measured cell apoptotic gene expression. XRD and FT-IR investigations validated nanocarrier production and revealed their crystalline structure and molecular interactions. DLS showed that nanocarriers include NPs with an average size of 250.6 nm and PDI of 0.057. SEM showed their spherical form, and zeta potential studies showed an average surface charge of +37.8 mV. pH 5.4 had a highly effective and prolonged drug release profile, releasing virtually all 5-FU and GA in 48 h. Entrapment efficiency percentages for 5-FU and GA were 84.7±5.2 and 80.2 %±2.3, respectively. The 5-FU-GA-CS-CQD-Apt group induced the highest cell death, with just 57.9 % of the MCF-7 cells surviving following treatment. 5-FU and GA in CS-CQD-Apt enhanced apoptotic induction by flow cytometry. 5-FU-GA-CS-CQD-Apt also elevated Caspase 9 and downregulated Bcl2. Accordingly, the produced NPs may serve as pH-sensitive nano vehicles for the controlled release of 5-FU and GA in treating breast cancer.     

Targeted Intracellular Delivery of Resveratrol to Glioblastoma Cells Using Apolipoprotein E-Containing Reconstituted HDL as a Nanovehicle

The objective of this study is to transport and deliver resveratrol to intracellular sites using apolipoprotein E3 (apoE3). Reconstituted high-density lipoprotein (rHDL) bearing resveratrol (rHDL/res) was prepared using phospholipids and the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr)-binding domain of apoE3. Biophysical characterization revealed that resveratrol was partitioned into the phospholipid bilayer of discoidal rHDL/res particles (~19 nm diameter). Co-immunoprecipitation studies indicated that the LDLr-binding ability of apoE3 was retained. Cellular uptake of resveratrol to intracellular sites was evaluated in glioblastoma A-172 cells by direct fluorescence using chemically synthesized NBD-labeled resveratrol (res/NBD) embedded in rHDL/res. Competition and inhibition studies indicate that the uptake is by receptor mediated endocytosis via the LDLr, with co-localization of apoE3 and res/NBD in late endosomes/lysosomes. We propose that rHDL provides an ideal hydrophobic milieu to sequester resveratrol and that rHDL containing apoE3 serves as an effective “nanovehicle” to transport and deliver resveratrol to targeted intracellular sites.     

Inhibiting JNK Dephosphorylation and Induction of Apoptosis by Novel Anticancer Agent NSC-741909 in Cancer Cells

NSC-741909 is a recently identified novel anticancer agent that suppresses the growth of several NCI-60 cancer cell lines with a unique anticancer spectrum. However, its molecular mechanisms remain unknown. To determine the molecular mechanisms of NSC-741909-induced antitumor activity, we analyzed the changes of 77 protein biomarkers in a sensitive lung cancer cell line after treatment with this compound by using reverse-phase protein microarray. The results showed that phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases (P38 MAPK, ERK, and JNK) were persistently elevated by the treatment with NSC-741909. However, only the JNK-specific inhibitor SP600125 effectively blocked the apoptosis induced by NSC-741909. Moreover, NSC-741909-mediated apoptosis was also blocked by a dominant-negative JNK construct, suggesting that sustained activation of JNK is critical for the apoptosis induction. Further studies revealed that treatment with NSC-741909 suppressed dephosphorylation of JNK and the expression of MAPK phosphatase-1. Thus, NSC-741909-mediated inhibition of JNK dephosphorylation results in sustained JNK activation, which leads to apoptosis in cancer cells.Because of genetic and epigenetic changes in cancer cells, it is possible to identify tumor-selective cytotoxic agents by synthetic lethality screening for compounds that kill isogenic cancer cells but not their normal counterparts (1). The term synthetic lethality was originally used to describe a lethal phenotype caused by mutations of two genes (2), i.e. mutations of the two genes are lethal if they occur together but viable if they occur separately. A synthetically lethal phenotype often indicates that the two genes or two related pathways affect a common essential biologic function. Unfortunately, our current knowledge of molecular networks in normal or cancer cells is not adequate for us to predict what genes are synthetically lethal partners to an oncogene or a mutated tumor suppressor gene. Nevertheless, synthetic lethality screening allows us to identify cytotoxic agents specific for certain cancer cells because a compound targeting to such a partner can be identified by their lethality when administered to cancer cells with elevated activities of a particular oncogene.Using synthetic lethality screening, we recently identified an indole compound (designated oncrasin-1) that kills immortalized and tumorigenic human ovarian epithelial cells expressing mutant K-Ras but not cells expressing wild-type Ras genes (3). Furthermore, this compound effectively induced apoptosis at low micromolar or nanomolar concentrations in a variety of lung cancer cells with K-Ras mutations but did not kill cells with wild-type Ras genes. Molecular characterization revealed that oncrasin-1 can induce abnormal aggregation of protein kinase C-ι in the nucleus of oncrasin-sensitive cells but not in oncrasin-resistant cells and that oncrasin-1-induced apoptosis was blocked by siRNA³ of K-Ras or protein kinase C-ι (3), demonstrating that oncrasin-1 is synthetically lethal for K-Ras and protein kinase C-ι, one of the downstream effectors of Ras signaling pathways (4). Our search for oncrasin-1 analogues identified several active compounds with similar chemical structures. Testing of one of the oncrasin-1 analogues, oncrasin-60 (NSC-741909), on NCI-60 cancer cell lines showed that it is highly active against several cell lines derived from lung, colon, breast, ovary, and kidney cancers and that it lies outside the category of adequately studied classes of antitumor agents, suggesting that those compounds could be novel anticancer agents. However, the mechanisms of apoptosis induction by oncrasin compounds remain to be characterized. Here, we used reverse-phase protein array to determine molecular changes induced by NSC-741909 in a sensitive cell line. Our results indicated that sustained c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) activation caused by suppression of JNK dephosphorylation contributes to NSC-741909-induced apoptosis.     

Selective Attachment of Oligonucleotides to Interleukin-1β and Targeted Delivery to Cells

Abstract

Conjugates between oligodeoxyribonucleotides and an interleukin-1β mutant protein have been constructed using a heterobifunctional cross-linker. These protein-DNA conjugates had conserved binding activity to the interleukin-1 receptor. The oligonucleotide hybridization properties were unchanged.     

Identification of the Novel TMEM16A Inhibitor Dehydroandrographolide and Its Anticancer Activity on SW620 Cells

TMEM16A, a calcium-activated chloride channel (CaCC), is highly amplified and expressed in human cancers and is involved in the growth and metastasis of some malignancies. Inhibition of TMEM16A represents a novel pharmaceutical approach for the treatment of cancers and metastases. The purpose of this study is to identify a new TMEM16A inhibitor, investigate the effects of this inhibitor on the proliferation and metastasis of TMEM16A-amplified SW620 cells, and to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism in vitro. We identified a novel small-molecule TMEM16A inhibitor dehydroandrographolide (DP). By using patch clamp electrophysiology, we showed that DP inhibited TMEM16A chloride currents in Fisher rat thyroid (FRT) cells that were transfected stably with human TMEM16A and in TMEM16A-overexpressed SW620 cells but did not alter cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride currents. Further functional studies showed that DP suppressed the proliferation of SW620 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner using MTT assays. Moreover, DP significantly inhibited migration and invasion of SW620 cells as detected by wound-healing and transwell assays. Further mechanistic study demonstrated that knockdown of human TMEM16A decreased the inhibitory effect of DP on the proliferation of SW620 cells and that TMEM16A-dependent cells (SW620 and HCT116) were more sensitive to DP than TMEM16A-independent cells (SW480 and HCT8). In addition, we found that treatment of SW620 cells with DP led to a decrease in TMEM16A protein levels but had no effect on TMEM16A mRNA levels. The current work reveals that DP, a novel TMEM16A inhibitor, exerts its anticancer activity on SW620 cells partly through a TMEM16A-dependent mechanism, which may introduce a new targeting approach for an antitumour therapy in TMEM16A-amplified cancers.     

Direct Delivery of a Cytotoxic Anticancer Agent into the Metastatic Lymph Node Using Nano/Microbubbles and Ultrasound

Direct injection of an anticancer agent into a metastatic lymph node (LN) has not been used as a standard treatment because evidence concerning the efficacy of local administration of a drug into a metastatic LN has not been established. Here we show that the combination of intralymphatic drug delivery with nano/microbubbles (NMBs) and ultrasound has the potential to improve the chemotherapeutic effect. We delivered cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (CDDP) into breast carcinoma cells in vitro and found that apoptotic processes were involved in the antitumor action. Next, we investigated the antitumor effect of intralymphatic chemotherapy with NMBs and ultrasound in an experimental model of LN metastasis using MXH10/Mo-lpr/lpr mice exhibiting lymphadenopathy. The combination of intralymphatic chemotherapy with NMBs and ultrasound has the potential to improve the delivery of CDDP into target LNs without damage to the surrounding normal tissues. The present study indicates that intralymphatic drug delivery with NMBs and ultrasound will potentially be of great benefit in the clinical setting.