homocamptothecin and Carcinoma--Hepatocellular

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), arising from hepatocytes, is the most common primary liver cancer. It is urgent to develop novel therapeutic approaches to improve the grim prognosis of advanced HCC. 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) has good antitumor activity in cells; however, its hydrophobicity limits its application in the chemotherapy of HCC. Recently, nanoscale porphyrin metal-organic frameworks have been used as drug carriers due to their low biotoxicity and photodynamic properties.. Nanoscale zirconium porphyrin metal-organic frameworks (NMOFs) were coated with arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide to prepare NMOFs-RGD first. The HepG2 cell line, zebrafish embryos and larvae were used to test the biotoxicity and fluorescence imaging capability of NMOFs-RGD both in vitro and in vivo. Then, NMOFs were used as the skeleton, HCPT was assembled into the pores of NMOFs, while RGD peptide was wrapped around to synthesize a novel kind of nanocomposites, HCPT@NMOFs-RGD. The tissue distribution and chemo- and photodynamic therapeutic effects of HCPT@NMOFs-RGD were evaluated in a doxycycline-induced zebrafish HCC model and xenograft mouse model.. NMOFs-RGD had low biotoxicity, good biocompatibility and excellent imaging capability. In HCC-bearing zebrafish, HCPT@NMOFs-RGD were specifically enriched in the tumor by binding specifically to integrin α. The nanocomposites HCPT@NMOFs-RGD accomplish tumor targeting and play synergistic chemo- and photodynamic therapeutic effects on HCC, offering a novel imaging-guided drug delivery and theranostic platform.

Topics: Animals; Camptothecin; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Humans; Liver Neoplasms; Mice; Nanocomposites; Oligopeptides; Photochemotherapy; Zebrafish

Drug-phospholipid lipid nanoparticles (DPLNs) can effectively enhance the properties of traditional solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), as previously demonstrated by our research group and others. To date, however, very few studies have focused on the cellular uptake mechanism and fate of DPLNs in hepatoma. Therefore, we systematically studied the cellular uptake mechanism and endosomal fate of DPLNs through in vitro and in vivo experiments. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and flow cytometry demonstrated that the Raw264.7 cell line (macrophage Raw264.7 cells), Chang cells (a human liver cell line) and HepG2 cells (a human hepatoma cell line) exhibited distinct uptake mechanisms. The Raw264.7 cells served as a model for examining liver-targeting ability. The results from mice with subcutaneous hepatomas and in situ hepatomas confirmed that the liver tumor-targeting property of the DPLNs was associated with the liver drug reservoir function. These findings further improve our understanding of DPLNs for clinical applications.

Topics: Animals; Camptothecin; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Cell Line, Tumor; Diffusion; Endosomes; Liposomes; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Nanocapsules; Organ Specificity; Phospholipids; Tissue Distribution