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In this study, novel redox-sensitive nanoparticles based on xylan-lipoic acid (Xyl-LA) conjugate were developed for tumor targeted delivery of niclosamide (Nic) in cancer therapy. The niclosamide loaded xylan-lipoic acid conjugate nanoparticles (Xyl-LA/Nic NPs) showed redox responsive behaviour in presence of reductive glutathione (GSH), which indicate their suitability for intracellular drug release. The obtained Xyl-LA/Nic NPs exhibited uniform particle size (196 ± 1.64 nm), high loading capacity (~28.6 wt %) and excellent blood compatibility. The anticancer activity of the Niclosamide and the Xyl-LA/Nic NPs against the colon carcinoma cell lines (HCT-15, Colo-320) were evaluated by MTT assay and the overall results indicate that the Xyl-LA/Nic NPs significantly enhanced the therapeutic efficiency of niclosamide in cancer therapy., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great potentials as drug delivery carriers, but the conventional methods for MOFs synthesis limited their use in biomedicine. The aim of this study was engineered tumor-targeted zinc nanoscale MOFs encapsulating chemotherapy drug., Methods: We employed post-synthetic modification to construct tumor cell-targeted nanoscale zinc MOFs (nanoMOFs) functionalized with folate as the targeting ligand that binds specifically to folate receptors on tumor cells. The cytoctoxicity of drug-loaded nanoMOFs was measured by MTT assay. The cell target was tested by cell compete assay., Results: The successful synthesis of folate-targeted nanoMOFs was confirmed by FTIR, 1 H-NMR and ESI-MS analysis. In the drug loading test, the zinc nanoMOFs functionalized with folate quickly adsorbed up to 24 wt % 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) without causing obvious changes in the supramolecular crystalline organization of the material. The in vitro drug release profile of this nanoMOFs in phosphate buffered saline exhibited a biphasic pattern. The drug sustained release is the effect mainly of diffusion of 5-FU molecules, while the degradation of the carrier itself plays a minor role in this process. The drug-loaded nanoMOFs showed a stronger cytotoxicity than free 5-FU against three cancer cell lines in vitro with a distinct selectivity between folate receptors positive and negative cells., Conclusions: These results encourage further in vivo studies of this nanoMOFs as candidates for tumor-targeted, sustained-release delivery of chemotherapeutic agents.

Cellulose is an important environmentally-friendly renewable polymer on the earth. Cellulose has been widely used as feedstocks for the synthesis of biomaterials, biofuels and biochemicals. Recently, cellulose and cellulose derivatives have received intense attention in biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, scaffold, artificial blood vessel, skin grafts, artificial skin, drug carrier, and chronic skin diseases, many of which are somehow related to cancer therapy. In this mini-review, we focus on the up-to-date development of cellulosebased nanocarriers used for cancer therapy. Various cellulose-based nanocarriers such as bacterial cellulose (BC), cellulose acetate, microcrystalline cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanofibrills, etc, are reviewed in terms of being used in drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. Different strategies for the synthesis of cellulose-based nanocarriers are summarized. Special attention is paid on the structure and properties of cellulose-based drug carriers for cancer therapy via some representative examples. Finally, the problems and future developments of these promising polymeric nanocarriers are raised and proposed., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

Ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) represented by gas-filled microbubble, can provide simultaneous and co-localized enhancement on image contrast to help disease diagnosis by highlighting tissue borders. Nowadays, Some UCAs (e.g. Levovist®, Optison®, Definity®, and Sonovue®) are commercially available, and have been clinically utilized for enhanced ultrasonography in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and so on. However, their large diameters (1~10 µm) mainly hinder more precise and deeper applications in the imaging of capillaryabundant organs or tissues (e.g. tumor), and undersized nanoscale UCAs also lack enough backscattering echo intensity to distinguish abnormal distribution of vessels. So novel shapes, structures and materials of nano-sized UCAs are constantly emerging for cancer ultrasonic imaging. Particularly, the cavitation effect of diagnostic ultrasound can accelerate effusion of loaded contents from UCAs, following cellular uptake. This will inevitably contribute to develop other potential applications of nano-sized UCAs towards cancer therapy and theranostics., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

Poor delivery of insoluble anticancer drugs has so far precluded their clinical application. In this study, an efficient tumor targeted-nanoparticle delivery system, transferrin-eight-arm-polyethylene glycol-dihydroartemisinin nanoparticles (TF-8arm-PEG-DHA NPs) for the vehiculation of dihydroartemisinin (DHA) was first prepared and evaluated for its targeting efficiency and cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo to Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells, which overexpress transferrin receptors (TFRs). The synthesized TF-8arm-PEG-DHA NPs had high solubility (~102 fold of free DHA), relatively high drug loading (~10 wt% DHA), long circulating half-life and moderate particle size (~147 nm). The in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo tumor growth inhibition studies in LLC-tumor bearing mice confirmed the enhanced efficacy of TF-modified 8arm-PEG-DHA NPs compared to free DHA and non-modified 8arm-PEG-DHA NPs. All these results together supported that the formulation developed in this work exhibited great potential as an effective tumor targeting delivery system for insoluble anticancer drugs.