Design of the New Closo -Dodecarborate-Containing Gemcitabine Analogue for the Albumin-Based Theranostics Composition.

Combination therapy is becoming an increasingly important treatment strategy because multi-drugs can maximize therapeutic effect and overcome potential mechanisms of drug resistance. A new albumin-based theranostic containing gemcitabine closo -dodecaborate analogue has been developed for combining boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and chemotheraphy. An exo-heterocyclic amino group of gemcitabine was used to introduce closo- dodecaborate, and a 5'-hydroxy group was used to tether maleimide moiety through an acid-labile phosphamide linker. The N -trifluoroacylated homocysteine thiolactone was used to attach the gemcitabine analogue to human serum albumin (HSA) bearing Cy5 or Cy7 fluorescent dyes. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC ₅₀ ) of the designed theranostic relative to T98G cells was 0.47 mM with the correlation coefficient R = 0.82. BNCT experiments resulted in a decrease in the viability of T98G cells, and the survival fraction was ≈ 0.4.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.