Pullulan-coated phospholipid and Pluronic F68 complex nanoparticles for carrying IR780 and paclitaxel to treat hepatocellular carcinoma by combining photothermal therapy/photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Dan Wang,1,* Sipei Zhang,1,* Tao Zhang,1 Guoyun Wan,1 Bowei Chen,1 Qingqing Xiong,2 Jie Zhang,3 Wenxue Zhang,4 Yinsong Wang1 1Tianjin Key Laboratory on Technologies Enabling Development of Clinical Therapeutics and Diagnostics (Theranostics), School of Pharmacy, Tianjin Medical University, 2Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, 3Surgery Department, 4Radiotherapy Department, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: IR780, a near-infrared dye, can also be used as a photosensitizer both for photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT). In this study, we designed a simple but effective nanoparticle system for carrying IR780 and paclitaxel, thus hoping to combine PTT/PDT and chemotherapy to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This nanosystem, named PDF nanoparticles, consisted of phospholipid/Pluronic F68 complex nanocores and pullulan shells. IR780 and paclitaxel were loaded separately into PDF nanoparticles to form PDFI and PDFP nanoparticles, which had regular sphere shapes and relatively small sizes. Upon near-infrared laser irradiation at 808 nm, PDFI nanoparticles showed strong PTT/PDT efficacy both in vitro and in vivo. In MHCC-97H cells, the combined treatment of PDFI nanoparticles/laser irradiation and PDFP nanoparticles exhibited significant synergistic effects on inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. In MHCC-97H tumor-bearing mice, PDFI nanoparticles exhibited excellent HCC-targeting and accumulating capability after intravenous injection. Furthermore, the combined treatment of PDFI nanoparticles/laser irradiation and PDFP nanoparticles also effectively inhibited the tumor growth and the tumor angiogenesis in MHCC-97H tumor-bearing mice. In summary, we put forward a therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment by combining PTT/PDT and chemotherapy. Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, IR780, paclitaxel, combination therapy, nanoparticle