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Cell membrane-camouflaged nanoparticles for cancer therapy have received a burgeoning interest over the past years. However, the low drug loading and intratumoral release efficiency, and lack of precise targeting remains a big challenge; in addition, foreign carriers used may pose an expected burden in the course of metabolism. In this study, we designed and fabricated a novel NIR-responsive highly targeted carrier-free nanosystem by coating the exactly identical source of cracked cancer cell membranes (CCCMs) specifically derived from the homologous tumors onto the surface of the co-assembly nanoparticles of doxorubicin (DOX) and FDA-approved photothermal agent, indocyanine green (ICG). The nanosystems exhibited a high drug loading capacity (89.8%), cancer cell self-recognized ability and immune escape function. Further, the nanodrugs could be efficiently released for the membrane disturbance triggered by photothermal effect of ICG under NIR irradiation. The tumor-bearing mice model demonstrated that the self-carried DOX NPs@ICG@CCCM nanoparticles possessed a strong synergistic chemo-/photothermal therapeutic efficacy against tumors in vivo. The present strategy could be developed as a universal approach for designing and constructing carrier-free theranostic nanovehicles by intentionally selecting specific cancer cell membrane and the inner loading cargoes.

The insufficient endocytosis and the low expression efficiency of the transfected gene in the lesion are still the main challenge for gene therapy. Herein, a novel bilirubin (BR)-based ROS responsive hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity switchable BR-grafted polylysine (PLL)/DNA nanosystem is designed by condensing indocyanine green (ICG) onto the surface of vector through electrostatic interaction between ICG and PLL, which can prolong the blood circulation time of nanocomplexes, and thus enhance the gene transfection efficiency due to the favorable solubility exchange of BR from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity under ROS stimulus and the increased roughness of coated ICG. The in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate that the BR-based ROS responsive hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity switchable nanosystem with a rough surface can enhance the endocytosis of the nanoparticles, and consequently facilitate the gene therapy in an inflammatory environment. Our delicate design concept can expand to develop an anti-inflammation nanocarrier for efficient gene therapy in an inflammatory setting.

Drug-loaded injectable hydrogels have been proven to possess huge potential for applications in tissue engineering. However, increasing the drug loading capacity and regulating the release system to adapt to the microenvironment after myocardial infarction face a huge challenge. In this research, an ROS-sensitive injectable hydrogel strengthened by self-nanodrugs was constructed. A hyperbranched ROS-sensitive macromer (HB-PBAE) with multiacrylate end groups was synthesized through dynamic controlled Michael addition. Meanwhile, a simple protocol based on dopamine polymerization was employed to generate a polydopamine (PDA) layer deposited on the tanshinone IIA (TIIA) nanoparticles (NPs) formed from spontaneous hydrophobic self-assembly. The HB-PBAE reacted with thiolate-modified hyaluronic acid (HA-SH) to form an in situ hydrogel, where TIIA@PDA NPs can be conveniently entrapped through the chemical cross-link between thiolate and quinone groups on PDA, which doubles the modulus of hydrogels. The in vivo degradation behavior of the hydrogels was characterized by MRI, exhibiting a much slower degradation behavior that is markedly different from that of in vitro. Importantly, a significant improvement of cardiac functions was achieved after hydrogel injection in terms of increased ejection fraction and decreased infarction size, accompanied by inhibition of the expression of inflammation factors, such as IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α.

A polymeric polyethylenimine (PEI)-based prodrug of anticancer doxorubicin (DOX) (PEI-hyd-DOX) was designed by attaching DOX to PEI via an acid-labile hydrazone bond, for the achievement of biocontrollable gene and drug co-delivery in response to the intracellular acid microenvironments in the late endosome/lysosome compartments. The cytotoxicity of PEI-hyd-DOX was evaluated by the MTT assay and the cellular uptake was monitored using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The polymeric prodrug can respond with a high sensitivity to the specific acid condition inside cells, thus permitting the precise biocontrol over intracellular drug liberation with high drug efficacy. The chemical attachment of drug molecules also led to the relatively reduced toxicity and the enhanced transfection efficiency compared with parent PEI. The resulting data adumbrated the potential of PEI-hyd-DOX to co-deliver DOX and therapeutic gene for the combination of chemotherapy and gene therapy.

In principle, not only efficient but rapid transfection is required since it can maximize the bioavailability of vector-carried gene prior to the cellular excretion. However, the "rapid" goal has been paid few attentions so far in the research field of vector-aided transfection. As a pioneering attempt, the present study designed a lysosome-targeting acidity-responsive nanoassembly as gene vectors, which proved the amazing potency to mediate the "Superfast" transnuclear gene transport and gene transfection with high efficiency in vitro and in vivo. The nanoassembly was constructed on the pH-reversible covalent boronic acid-diol coupling between 1,3-diol-rich oligoethylenimine (OEI-EHDO) and phenylboronic acid modified cholesterol (Chol-PBA). The rapid and efficient nuclei-tropic delivery and transfection was demonstrated to highly rely on the lysosome-acidity induced assembly destruction followed by the easy liberation of gene payloads inside cells. The nanoassembly-mediated transfection at 8 h can afford the outcome even comparable to that achieved at 48 h by the golden standard of PEI25k, and the transfection efficiency can still remain at a high level during 48 h. In contrast, time-dependent efficiency enhancement was identified for the transfections using PEI25k and OEI-EHDO as delivery vectors. Moreover, owing to the hydroxyl-rich surface, this delivery nanosystem presented strong tolerance to the serum-induced transfection inhibition that frequently occurred for the polycationic gene vectors such as PEI25k. The in vitro and in vivo results manifested the low toxicity of this bio-decomposable nanoassembly.

In this paper, a multifunctional theranostic magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MMSN) with magnetic core was developed for magnetic-enhanced tumor-targeted MR imaging and precise therapy. The gatekeeper beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) was immobilized on the surface of mesoporous silica shell via platinum(IV) prodrug linking for reduction-triggered intracellular drug release. Then Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide ligand was further introduced onto the gatekeeper beta-CD via host-guest interaction for cancer targeting purpose. After active-targeting endocytosis by cancer cells, platinum(IV) prodrug in MMSNs would be restored to active platinum(II) drug in response to the innative reducing microenvironment in cancer cells, resulting in the detachment of beta-CD gatekeeper and thus simultaneously triggering the in situ release of anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) entrapped in the MMSNs to kill cancer cells. It was found that with the aid of an external magnetic field, drug loaded MMSNs showed high contrast in MR imaging in vivo and exhibited magnetically enhanced accumulation in the cancer site, leading to significant inhibition of cancer growth with minimal side effects. This multifunctional MMSN will find great potential as a theranostic nanoplatform for cancer treatment. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to the mass death of cardiomyocytes accompanying with the unfavorable alternation of microenvironment, a fibrosis scar deprived of electrical communications, and the lack of blood supply in the infarcted myocardium. The three factors are inextricably intertwined and thus result in a conservative MI therapy efficacy in clinic. A holistic approach pertinently targeted to these three key points would be favorable to rebuild the heart functions. Here, an injectable conductive hydrogel was constructed via in situ Michael addition reaction between multi-armed conductive crosslinker tetraaniline-polyethylene glycol diacrylate (TA-PEG) and thiolated hyaluronic acid (HA-SH). The resultant soft conductive hydrogel with equivalent myocardial conductivity and anti-fatigue performance was loaded with plasmid DNA encoding eNOs (endothelial nitric oxide synthase) nanocomplexes and adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) for treating MI. The TA-PEG/HA-SH/ADSCs/Gene hydrogel-based holistic system was injected into the infarcted myocardium of SD rats. We demonstrated an increased expression of eNOs in myocardial tissue the heightening of nitrite concentration, accompanied with upregulation of proangiogenic growth factors and myocardium related mRNA. The results of electrocardiography, cardiogram, and histological analysis convincingly revealed a distinct increase of ejection fraction (EF), shortened QRS interval, smaller infarction size, less fibrosis area, and higher vessel density, indicating a significant improvement of heart functions. This conception of combination approach by a conductive injectable hydrogel loaded with stem cells and gene-encoding eNOs nanoparticles will become a robust therapeutic strategy for the treatment of MI.

A dual-Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based versatile prodrug (V-prodrug), in which the fluorescence of both 5(6)-carboxylfluorescein (FAM) and doxorubicin (DOX) can be quenched by 4-(dimethylaminoazo)benzene-4-carboxylic acid (Dabcyl) with high quenching efficiency, is developed in this paper. The V-prodrug can selectively bind to the αvβ3 integrin overexpressed cancer cells through the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) targeting moiety. After that, the acid-mediated DOX release of the V-prodrug can be real-time monitored by the increase of the red fluorescence from DOX. Thereafter, DOX-induced cell apoptosis can also be in situ assessed by the fluorescence recovery of the FAM, due to the caspase-3-mediated Asp-Glu-Val-Asp (DEVD) peptide sequence cleavage. This novel prodrug provides a cascaded imaging of real-time drug release and subsequent cell apoptosis, which enables the in situ detection of the cancer response and the therapeutic efficacy evaluation of the prodrug.

This study reports a linear-hyperbranched supramolecular amphiphile and its vesicular nanoassembly with acidity-sensitive susceptibility including volume extension and membrane rupture. Involvement of a host-guest interaction in the amphiphilic construction allows not only facile control of the assembly types (solid and hollow nanoparticles), but also the one-step achievement of both polymersome fabrication and drug encapsulation. The pH-dependency of assembly stability leads to the controlled release of encapsulated hydrophilic agents in an acidity-accelerated manner. By blocking the endosomal acidification progression using NH4 Cl treatment, the lysosomal acid environment is suggested to play an important role in the drug release behavior inside cells and contributes much to nuclei-tropic drug transport.

This study reported a flexible nanoplatform constructed on the pH-dependent self-assembly of two kinds of hyperbranched polymers, and then validated its potency as the controllable siRNA/drug co-delivery vehicle for the combination of chemotherapy with RNA interfering (RNAi) therapy. By virtue of pH-reversible phenylboronate linking, phenylboronic acid-tethered hyperbranched oligoethylenimine (OEI600-PBA) and 1,3-diol-rich hyperbranched polyglycerol (HBPO) can be spontaneously interlinked together into a core-corona nanoconstruction. The special buildup of compactly clustering OEI600-PBA units around hydrophobic HBPO aggregate offered significant advantages over parent OEI600-PBA, including strengthened affinity to siRNA, ability of further loading anticancer drug, easier cellular transport, and acidity-responsive release of payloads. To evaluate the co-delivery capability, Beclin1 siRNA and antitumor DOX were used as the therapeutic models in order to suppress the post-chemotherapy survival of tumor cells caused by drug-induced autophagy. The nanoassembly-mediated single delivery of DOX displayed even better anticancer effects than free DOX, demonstrating the superiority of our pH-responsive nano-design. The nanoassembly-mediated co-delivery of siRNA together with DOX can effectively silence Beclin1 gene, suppress DOX-induced autophagy, and consequently provide strong synergism with a significant enhancement of cell-killing effects in cultured cancerous cells. The in vivo combinational treatment was shown to make the tumor more sensitive to DOX chemotherapy while displaying substantially improved safety as compared with the monochemotherapy.

A versatile gold nanoparticle-based multifunctional nanocomposite AuNP@CD-AD-DOX/RGD was constructed flexibly via host-guest interaction for targeted cancer chemotherapy. The pH-sensitive anticancer prodrug AD-Hyd-DOX and the cancer-targeted peptide AD-PEG8-GRGDS were modified on the surface of AuNP@CD simultaneously, which endowed the resultant nanocomposite with the capability to selectively eliminate cancer cells. In vitro studies indicated that the AuNP@CD-AD-DOX/RGD nanocomposite was preferentially uptaken by cancer cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis. Subsequently, anticancer drug DOX was released rapidly upon the intracellular trigger of the acid microenvirenment of endo/lysosomes, inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. As the ideal drug nanocarrier, the multifunctional gold nanoparticles with the active targeting and controllable intracellular release ability hold the great potential in cancer therapy.

In this paper, an intracellular glutathione (GSH) responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN-S-S-RGD) was developed as a drug nanocarrier by immobilizing the gatekeeper (RGD containing peptide) onto MSNs using disulfide bonds. The antitumor drug, DOX was loaded onto the porous structure of the MSNs and the DOX@MSN-S-S-RGD system has been proved to be an effective nanocarrier. It was determined that most of the drug could be entrapped with only a slight leakage. After being accumulated in tumor cells via the receptor-mediated endocytosis, the surface peptide layer of DOX@MSN-S-S-RGD was removed to trigger the release of the entrapped drug to kill the tumor cell due to the cleavage of the disulfide bonds by intracellular GSH.

In this paper, a novel stepwise-acid-active multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN-(SA)TAT(DMA)K11) was developed as a drug carrier. The MSN-(SA)TAT(DMA)K11 is able to reverse its surface charge from negative to positive in the mildly acidic tumor extracellular environment. Then, the fast endo/lysosomal escape and subsequent nucleus targeting as well as intranuclear drug release can be realized after cellular internalization. Because of the difference in acidity between the tumor extracellular environment and that of endo/lysosomes, this multifunctional MSN-(SA)TAT(DMA)K11 exhibits a stepwise-acid-active drug delivery with a tumor-specific nucleus-targeted property.

Advanced drug delivery systems, which possess post-functionalization feasibility to achieve targetability and traceability, favorable pharmacokinetics with dynamic but controllable stability, and preferable tumor accumulation with prolonged drug residence in disease sites, represent ideal nanomedicine paradigm for tumor therapy. To address this challenge, here we reported a dynamic module-assembly strategy based on reversible boronic acid/1,3-diol bioorthogonality. As a prototype, metastable hybrid nanoself-assembly between hydrophobic hyperbranched diol-enriched polycarbonate (HP-OH) and hydrophilic linear PEG terminated with phenylboronic acid (mPEG-PBA) is demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. The nanoconstruction maintained excellent stability with little leakage of loaded drugs under the simulated physiological conditions. Such a stable nanostructure enabled the effective in vivo tumor accumulation in tumor site as revealed by NIR imaging technique. More importantly, this nanoconstruction presented a pH-labile destruction profile in response to acidic microenvironment and simultaneously the fast liberation of loaded drugs. Accordingly at the cellular level, the intracellular structural dissociation was also proved in terms of the strong acidity in late endosome/lysosome, thus favoring the prolonged retention of remaining drug-loaded HP-OH aggregates within tumor cells. Hence, our delicate design open up a dynamical module-assembly path to develop site and time dual-controlled nanotherapeutics for tumor chemotherapy, allowing enhanced tumor selectivity through prolonged retention of delivery system in tumor cells followed by a timely drug release pattern.

This paper reports a drug nanovehicle self-assembled from an amine-functionalized block copolymer poly(6,14-dimethyl-1,3,9,11-tetraoxa-6,14-diaza-cyclohexadecane-2,10-dione)-block-poly(1,3-dioxepan-2-one) (PADMC-b-PTeMC), which is prepared by controlable ring-opening block copolymerization attractively in a "one-shot feeding" pathway. The copolymers display high cell-biocompatibility with no apparent cytotoxicities detected in 293T and HeLa cells. Due to their amphiphilic nature, PADMC-b-PTeMC copolymers can self-assemble into nanosized micelles capable of loading anticancer drugs such as camptothecin (CPT) and doxorubicin (DOX). In particular, the outer PADMC shell endows the PADMC-b-PTeMC nanomicelles with pH-dependent control over the micellar morphology, cell uptake efficiency, and the drug release pattern. Confocal inspection reveals the remarkably enhanced cellular internalization of drug loaded micelles by cancerous HeLa cells at relatively lower pH 5.8 simulating the mildly acid microenvironment in tumors. Along with the acidity-triggered volume expansion of micelles, an accelerated CPT release in vitro occurs. The obtained results adumbrate the possibility of completely biodegradable PADMC-b-PTeMC as pH-sensitive drug carriers for tumor chemotherapy.

By exploiting boronic acid coupling and host-guest chemistry, a pH-responsive drug/gene co-delivery nanoplatform is designed for cancer treatments with the excellently serum-tolerant transfection activity and the capability to load and release hydrophobic drugs in an acidity-accelerated manner. Via boronate linkage, γ-CD is allowed to spontaneously attach onto phenylboronic-acid-modified oligoethylenimine (PEI1.8K-PB2.9 ) at neutral condition. The formed vehicle/DNA nanoformulation is thus surrounded densely by γ-CD moieties to biomimic the carbohydrate-rich cell surface, providing a novel approach to overcome serum-susceptible drawbacks frequently associated with synthetic gene carriers. PEI1.8K-PB2.9 -γ-CD conjugates demonstrate significantly improved cell-biocompatibility and transfection activity over PEI1.8K-PB2.9 . Noticeably, serum-associated inhibition effect is negligible for PEI1.8K-PB2.9 -γ-CD-mediated transfection whereas marked transfection reduction occurs for PEI25K and PEI1.8K-PB2.9 upon serum exposure. Consequently, PEI1.8K-PB2.9 -γ-CDs afford much higher transfection efficiency, that is, 25-fold higher luciferase expression over PEI25K in presence of 30% serum. An anticancer drug of doxorubicin (DOX) is shown to be readily accommodated into the nanoformulation via host-guest chemistry and intracellularly co-delivered together with plasmid DNA. Due to the acidity-labile feature of boronate linkage, DOX/γ-CD inclusion complexes would be mostly detached from the nanoformulation triggered by acidity, leading to faster drug release. Furthermore, drug inclusion does not alter the serum-compatible transfection efficiency of PEI1.8K-PB2.9 -γ-CD.

In this paper, a facile strategy to develop graphene-based delivery nanosystems for effective drug loading and sustained drug release was proposed and validated. Specifically, biocompatible naphthalene-terminated PEG (NP) and anticancer drugs (curcumin or doxorubicin (DOX)) were simultaneously integrated onto oxidized graphene (GO), leading to self-assembled, nanosized complexes. It was found that the oxidation degree of GO had a significant impact on the drug-loading efficiency and the structural stability of nanosystems. Interestingly, the nanoassemblies resulted in more effective cellular entry of DOX in comparison with free DOX or DOX-loaded PEG-polyester micelles at equivalent DOX dose, as demonstrated by confocal microscopy studies. Moreover, the nanoassemblies not only exhibited a sustained drug release pattern without an initial burst release, but also significantly improved the stability of formulations which were resistant to drug leaking even in the presence of strong surfactants such as aromatic sodium benzenesulfonate (SBen) and aliphatic sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDS). In addition, the nanoassemblies without DOX loading showed negligible in vitro cytotoxicity, whereas DOX-loaded counterparts led to considerable toxicity against He La cells. The DOX-mediated cytotoxicity of the graphene-based formulation was around 20 folds lower than that of free DOX, most likely due to the slow DOX release from complexes. A zebrafish model was established to assess the in vivo safety profile of curcumin-loaded nanosystems. The results showed they were able to excrete from the zebrafish body rapidly and had nearly no influence on the zebrafish upgrowth. Those encouraging results may prompt the advance of graphene-based nanotherapeutics for biomedical applications.

Introducing drugs into gene delivery systems to fabricate co-delivery systems for synergy therapy has become a promising strategy for tumor therapy. In this study, a dual responsive co-delivery system RHD/p53 was fabricated to enhance the antitumor efficacy with a low dose of doxorubicin (DOX). The reducible branched cationic polypeptide (RBCP), which was cross-linked via the thiol groups of two three-armed cationic peptides (CRR)2KRRC and (CHH)2KHHC, was designated as RH. Then, DOX was immobilized on RH via pH-sensitive hydrazone bonds to obtain RHD. The positively charged RHD could compress p53 plasmid to form RHD/p53 complexes. After RHD/p53 complexes accumulated in tumor sites, the ability of cell penetrating by cationic peptide (CRR)2KRRC would facilitate the cellular internalization of complexes. Then, the complexes would be trapped in endosome, and the cleavage of hydrazone bonds in the intracellular acidic endosome could lead to pH-induced release of DOX. Additionally, the ability of protonation by (CHH)2KHHC could promote the escape of complexes from endosome to cytoplasm. Due to the cleavage of disulfide bonds triggered by the high-content GSH in cytoplasm, the complexes would be degraded and released p53 for co-therapy to improve antitumor efficacy. Both in vitro and in vivo studies indicated that dual responsive co-delivery system RHD/p53 could enhance antitumor efficacy, which provides a useful strategy for co-delivery of different therapeutic agents in tumor treatment.

Supramolecular microcapsules (SMCs) with the drug-loaded wall layers for pH-controlled drug delivery were designed and prepared. By using layer-by-layer (LbL) technique, the SMCs were constructed based on the self-assembly between polyaldenhyde dextran-graft-adamantane (PAD-g-AD) and carboxymethyl dextran-graft-β-CD (CMD-g-β-CD) on CaCO(3) particles via host-guest interaction. Simultaneously, adamantine-modified doxorubicin (AD-Dox) was also loaded on the LbL wall via host-guest interaction. The in vitro drug release study was carried out at different pHs. Because the AD groups were linked with PAD (PAD-g-AD) or Dox (AD-Dox) by pH-cleavable hydrazone bonds, AD moieties can be removed under the weak acidic condition, leading to destruction of SMCs and release of Dox. The pH-controlled drug release can enhance the uptake by tumor cells and thus achieve improved cancer therapy efficiency.

Fluorescent-magnetic-biotargeting multifunctional microcapsules (FMBMMs) are designed and fabricated via layer-by-layer assembly. It is found that the arginine-glycine-aspartate-modified FMBMMs were capable of sensitively detecting and efficiently isolating approximately 80% target cancer cells within 20 min. More importantly, FMBMMs present a general template for identifying and separating multiple types of cancer cells simply by altering the recognition motif.

To improve the tumor therapeutic efficiency and reduce undesirable side effects, ternary FK/p53/PEG-PLL(DA) complexes with a detachable surface shielding layer were designed. The FK/p53/PEG-PLL(DA) complexes were fabricated by coating the folate incorporated positively charged FK/p53 complexes with charge-switchable PEG-shield (PEG-PLL(DA)) through electrostatic interaction. At the physiological pH 7.4 in the bloodstream, PEG-PLL(DA) could extend the circulating time by shielding the positively charged FK/p53 complexes. After the accumulation of the FK/p53/PEG-PLL(DA) complexes in tumor sites, tumor-acidity-triggered charge switch led to the detachment of PEG-PLL(DA) from the FK/p53 complexes, and resulted in efficient tumor cell entry by folate-mediated uptake and electrostatic attraction. Stimulated by the high content glutathione (GSH) in cytoplasm, the cleavage of disulfide bond resulted in the liberation of proapoptosis peptide C-KLA(TPP) and the p53 gene, which exerted the combined tumor therapy by regulating both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. Both in vitro and in vivo studies confirmed that the ternary detachable complexes FK/p53/PEG-PLL(DA) could enhance antitumor efficacy and reduce adverse effects to normal cells. These findings indicate that the tumor-triggered decomplexation of FK/p53/PEG-PLL(DA) supplies a useful strategy for targeting delivery of different therapeutic agents in synergetic anticancer therapy.

The present study reported a lysosome-acidity-targeting bio-responsive nanovehicle self-assembled from dextran (Dex) and phenylboronic acid modified cholesterol (Chol-PBA), aiming at the nucleus-tropic drug delivery. The prominent advantage of this assembled nanoconstruction arose from its susceptibility to acidity-labile dissociation concurrently accompanied with the fast liberation of encapsulated drugs, leading to efficient nuclear drug translocation and consequently favorable drug efficacy. By elaborately exploiting NH4Cl pretreatment to interfere with the cellular endosomal acidification progression, this study clearly evidenced at a cellular level the strong lysosomal-acidity dependency of nuclear drug uptake efficiency, which was shown to be the main factor influencing the drug efficacy. The boronate-linked nanoassembly displayed nearly no cytotoxicity and can remain structural stability under the simulated physiological conditions including 10% serum and the normal blood sugar concentration. The cellular exposure to cholesterol was found to bate the cellular uptake of nanoassembly in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting a cholesterol-associated mechanism of the intracellular internalization. The in vivo antitumor assessment in xenograft mouse models revealed the significant superiority of DOX-loaded Dex/Chol-PBA nanoassembly over the controls including free DOX and the DOX-loaded non-sensitive Dex-Chol, as reflected by the more effective tumor-growth inhibition and the better systematic safety. In terms of the convenient preparation, sensitive response to lysosomal acidity and efficient nuclear drug translocation, Dex/Chol-PBA nanoassembly derived from natural materials shows promising potentials as the nanovehicle for nucleus-tropic drug delivery especially for antitumor agents. More attractively, this study offers a deeper insight into the mechanism concerning the contribution of acidity-responsive delivery to the enhanced chemotherapy performance.

To improve bone metastases chemotherapy, a peptide-conjugated diblock copolymer consisting of chimeric peptide, poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(trimethylene carbonate) (Pep-b-PEG-b-PTMC) is fabricated as a drug carrier capable of bone-seeking targeting as well as pathology-responsive charge reversal to ensure effective cellular uptake at the lesion sites. The chimeric peptide CKGHPGGPQAsp8 consists of an osteotropic anionic Asp8, a cathepsin K (CTSK)-cleavable substrate (HPGGPQ) and cationic residue tethered to polymer chain. Pep-b-PEG-b-PTMC can spontaneously self-assemble into negatively charged nanomicelles (~75 nm). As to the model drug of doxorubicin, Pep-b-PEG-b-PTM shows 30.0 ± 1 % and 90.1 ± 2 % for loading content and loading efficiency, respectively. High bone binding capability is demonstrated with that 66 % of Pep-b-PEG-b-PTMC micelles are able to bind to hydroxyl apatite, whereas less than 15 % is for Pep-free micelles. The nanomicelles exhibit a negative-to-positive charge conversion from −18.5 ± 1.9 mV to 15.2 ± 1.8 mV upon exposure to CTSK, an enzyme overexpressed in bone metastatic microenvironments. Such a pathology-responsive transition would lead to remarkably enhanced cellular uptake of the nanomicelles upon reaching lesion sites, thus improving the drug efficacy as verified by the in vitro cytotoxicity assay and the in vivo study in myeloma-bearing 5TGM1 mice model.

Different from commonly used alkylation strategies, PEI25K was modified with rigid, highly hydrophobic aromatic moieties to develop superior gene vectors with multiple functions, including structural compatibility with the cell membrane as well as cooperative contribution of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions to the transfer process. A facile preparation approach was proposed by directly reacting PEI25K with 5-benzyloxyl trimethylene carbonate (BTMC) while omitting reagent activation and catalyst aid. The hydrophobic interactions between PEI-BTMC molecules serves as hydrophobic “locks” to stabilize polyplexes. PEI-BTMC polyplexes were kept good stability in the presence of heparin and DNase. The transfections mediated by PEI-BTMC vectors were better than PEI25K control in different cell lines. Particularly in HeLa cells, such enhancement owing to BTMC attachment can reach even up to 150 times. Experimental data indicated that the highly enhanced transfection mediated by PEI-BTMC was possibly more dependent on the special functions caused by BTMC modification rather than the improved cell-biocompatibility. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) studies revealed the considerably higher potency of PEI-BTMC in transporting DNA into HeLa cells in comparison with PEI25K. It is expected that useful information provided in the current study would prompt the advance of PEI-based gene vectors towards practical applications.