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Combinatory Antitumor Therapy by A Cascade Targeting of A Single Drug
Combinatory Antitumor Therapy by A Cascade Targeting of A Single Drug
Aiyun Liu, Huaisong Wang, Xiaoshuang Hou, Yu Ma, Gongjun Yang, Yanglong Hou,
Ya Ding
PII: S2211-3835(19)30785-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2019.08.011
Reference: APSB 698
Please cite this article as: Liu A, Wang H, Hou X, Ma Y, Yang G, Hou Y, Ding Y, Combinatory Antitumor
Therapy by a Cascade Targeting of a Single Drug, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.apsb.2019.08.011.
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Graphic abstract
Co-delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) and its triphenylphosphine derivative (TPTX) using
galactose-modified liposomes realize the cascade targeting combination therapy from tissue to
cell, and then to mitochondria. PTX plays a primary role to cause the cytotoxicity by microtubule
bindings in cytoplasm, while TPTX is proved to increase the apoptosis via a
mitochondria-mediated pathway.
1
Original article
Combinatory antitumor therapy by cascade targeting of a single drug
Aiyun Liua,†, Huaisong Wanga,†, Xiaoshuang Houa, Yu Maa, Gongjun Yanga, Yanglong Houb,*,
Ya Dinga,*
a
Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance, Ministry of Education, China
Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory for Magnetoeletric Materials and Devices, Beijing Innovation Center for
Engineering Science and Advanced Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College
of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Received 19 June 2019; received in revised form 19 July 2019; accepted 11 August 2019
*
Corresponding authors. Tel./fax: +86 25 83271326.
E-mail addresses: hou@pku.edu.cn (Yonglong Hou), dingya@cpu.edu.cn (Ya Ding).
†
These authors made equal contributions to this work.
Running title: The cascade targeting combination therapy using a single drug.
Abstract Combination therapy has shown its promise in the clinic for enhancing the efficacy of
tumor treatment. However, the dose control of multiple drugs and their non-overlapping toxicity
from different drugs are still great challenge. In this work, a single model drug, paclitaxel (PTX), is
used to realize combination therapy and solve the problems mentioned above. Either PTX or its
triphenylphosphine derivative (TPTX) is encapsulated in galactose-modified liposomes (GLips) to
obtain GLips-P or GLips-TP, which are simply mixed in different ratios to finely control the
proportion of PTX and TPTX. These mixed liposomes, GLips-P/TP, feature a cascade target
delivery of PTX, from tissue to cell, and then to organelle. PTX plays a primary role to cause the
cytotoxicity by microtubule bindings in cytoplasm, while TPTX is proved to increase the
intracellular levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 that cause apoptosis via a mitochondria-mediated
pathway. Notably, GLips-P/TP 3:1 exhibited the significant drug synergy in both cytotoxicity assay
of HepG2 cells and the treatment efficacy in Heps xenograft ICR mouse models. This work not only
demonstrates the great promise of a cascade targeting delivery for precise tumor treatment, but also
offers a novel platform to design combinatory therapy systems using a single drug.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(31870946, 31470916, 51672010), the Funding of Double First-rate discipline construction
(CPU2018GF07, China), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education
Institutions, and the Open Project Program of MOE Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and
Pharmacovigilance (DQCP2015MS01, China).
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Figure 1 Schematic illustration of mixed liposomes for combination therapy via cascade target
delivery of a chemical drug. (A) The preparation and structure of cascade targeting liposomes. (B)
The liver targeting of liposomes based on the surface modification of galactose moiety and their
asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R)-mediated recognition. (C) The internalization of liposomes
via the receptor-mediated endocytosis and the subsequent tubulin and mitochondrion targeting of
drugs for the tumor cell inhibition.
Figure 2 Liver targeting of GLips. (A) The structure illustration of ASGP-R targeting liposomes
and their receptor-mediated cellular uptake. (B) The synthesis procedure of DSPE-PEG-LA. (C)
Hydrodynamic diameters, (D) transmission electron microscope (TEM) images, (E) zeta potentials
of GLips-F with different galactose density (Lips-F without LA modification is used as the
control). Cellular uptake of FR-loaded liposomes (containing 0.0075 mmol/L FR) (F) with the
same LA modification (Gal 1.34%) in different cell lines, including HeLa, L02, and HepG2 cells
and (G) with different LA modification (Gal 0.67%, 1.34%, and 2.68%) in HepG2. The data
present the mean ± SD (n=3). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (one-sample t-test).
Figure 3 Mitochondria targeting of TFR. (A) The illustration of the structure of TFR and its cell
membrane permeability and mitochondrial targeting. (B) The synthesis procedure of TFR. (C)
CLSM images of HepG2 cells after incubated with FR and TFR (0.15 mmol/L) at 37 °C for 12 h,
respectively, and the nuclei were stained by Hoechst 33342. The scale bar is 20 µm. (D)
Intracellular distribution of FR and TFR in mitochondria and nucleus vs. cell, respectively,
detected by the flow cytometry. Cells without incubation of FR or TFR were used as control. The
data present the mean ± SD (n=3). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (one-sample t-test).
Figure 5 Cell viability of (A, C) L02 cells and (B, D) HepG2 cells after incubating with (A, B)
Lips-P/TP and (C, D) GLips-P/TP at the same dose of PTX for 24 h.
Figure 6 Caspase-3 and caspase-9 amounts in (A, C) L02 cells and (B, D) HepG2 cells after
incubating with culture medium (control), PTX, TPTX, and mixed liposome formulations at the
same dose of PTX (1 µg/mL) for 12 h. Data represents mean±SD, n=3. *P<0.05, **
P<0.01,
one-sample t-test. Apoptosis of (E) L02 and (F) HepG2 cells after the incubation with GLips-P/TP
1:0, Lips-P/TP 3:1, GLips-P/TP 3:1, and GLips-P/TP 0:1 with the same dose of PTX for 24 h
using annexin V-FITC/PI staining. In each panel, the lower-left (annexin V-FITC−, PI−),
lower-right (annexin V-FITC+, PI−) and upper-right (annexin V-FITC+, PI+) quadrants represent
the populations of live cells, early apoptotic cells, and late apoptotic cells, respectively. The
average population (%) in each quadrant is indicated by numbers at the corner of the panels.
Figure 7 In vivo antitumor efficacy. (A) Relative tumor volume, (B) tumor weight, (C) the
photograph of typical tumors 10 days post-injection, (D) body weight, and (E) survival rates of
Heps tumor xenograft ICR mouse models after intravenous injection of (a) saline, (b) Taxol®, (c)
GLips-P/TP 1:0, (d) Lips-P/TP 3:1, (e) GLips-P/TP 3:1, and (f) GLips-P/TP 0:1 at a PTX dose of
20 mg/kg. Each point in (A), (B), (D), and (E) represents the mean±SD (n=5). *P<0.05, **P<0.01,
one-sample t-test. (F) Histological observation of tumor tissue sections (stained with H&E) and
detection of apoptosis in tumor tissue sections (stained by TdT mediated dUTP nick end labelling
using a TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) kit, Beyotime Institute of Biotechnology,
China) from control and test groups 10 days post-injection. The scale bar is 200 µm.
Table 1 IC50 and CI values of mixed liposomes in L02 and HepG2 cells (µg/mL, mean ± SD, n=3).
L02 cells HepG2 cells
Molar ratio Lips-P/TP GLips-P/TP Lips-P/TP GLips-P/TP
IC50 (µg/mL) CI IC50 (µg/mL) CI IC50 (µg/mL) CI IC50 (µg/mL) CI
* ** **
1:0 0.97 ± 0.23 – 0.63 ± 0.10 – 0.37 ± 0 .04 – 0.26 ± 0.03 –
** ** **
3:1 0.63 ± 0.06 0.69 0.32 ± 0.015 0.48 0.26 ± 0.01 0.61 0.09 ± 0.01 0.28
1:1 1.06 ± 0.17 0.74 0.81 ± 0.16 0.96 0.62 ± 0.04** 1.06 0.40 ± 0.03** 0.95
** ** **
1:3 1.71 ± 0.32 0.95 1.07 ± 0.24 0.99 0.79 ± 0.19 1.10 0.71 ± 0.06 1.25
0:1 3.66 ± 1.14 – 2.17 ± 0.16* – 2.35 ± 0.40* – 1.56 ± 0.33** –
*
P<0.05, **P<0.01 vs. Lips-P/TP (one-sample t-test). –Not applicable