Enhancement of cytotoxicity of artemisinin toward cancer cells by transferrin-mediated carbon nanotubes nanoparticles.

Abstract

Artemisinin (ART) is a kind of drug with an endoperoxide bridge which tends to react with Fe(2+) to generate radicals for killing cancer cells. However, simultaneous delivery of hydrophobic ART and Fe(2+) ions into cancer cells remains a major challenge. In this study, a multi-functional tumor-targeting drug delivery system employing hyaluronic acid-derivatized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (HA-MWCNTs) as drug carriers, transferrin (Tf) as targeting ligand and ART as a model drug for cancer treatment was constructed. This delivery system (HA-MWCNTs/Tf@ART) not only retained optical property of MWCNTs and cytotoxicity of ART but also demonstrated synergistic anti-tumor effect using ART and Tf. Compared with free ART, remarkably enhanced anti-tumor efficacy of this drug vehicle was realized both in cultured MCF-7 cells in vitro and in a tumor-bearing murine model in vivo, due to increased intracellular accumulation of ART and co-delivery of Tf and ART analogs. HA-MWCNTs/Tf@ART with laser irradiation demonstrated the highest inhibition effect compared to the other groups. This result may provide a new way of using promising natural drugs for cancer therapy.

• Authors: Huijuan Zhang, Yandan Ji, Qianqian Chen, Xiaojing Jiao, Lin Hou, Xiali Zhu, Zhenzhong Zhang
• Journal: Journal of drug targeting (J Drug Target) Vol. 23 Issue 6 Pg. 552-67 ( 2015) ISSN: 1029-2330 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 25754587 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Artemisinins
• Drug Carriers
• Nanotubes, Carbon
• Reactive Oxygen Species
• Transferrin
• Hyaluronic Acid
• artemisinin

Topics

• Animals
• Apoptosis (drug effects)
• Artemisinins (administration & dosage, chemistry, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology)
• Cell Cycle (drug effects)
• DNA Fragmentation (drug effects)
• Drug Carriers (administration & dosage, chemical synthesis, chemistry, pharmacokinetics)
• Drug Synergism
• Humans
• Hyaluronic Acid (chemistry, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology)
• MCF-7 Cells
• Mice
• Nanoparticles (administration & dosage, chemistry)
• Nanotubes, Carbon (chemistry)
• Reactive Oxygen Species (metabolism)
• Transferrin (administration & dosage, pharmacokinetics)
• Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays