Glioma is one of the most aggressive malignant diseases for human health. It is difficult to resect completely due to their invasiveness. The targeted delivery, as a noninvasive approach, is a major strategy for the development of treatments for
brain tumors.
Lactoferrin (Lf) receptors are over-expressed in both brain endothelial cells and
glioma cells. Macromolecular Lf modified nanoparticles have been shown to enhance the brain targeting.
Muscone is a "guide"
drug that have been demonstrated to promote
liposomes into the brain by modification. To further enhance the brain-targeting efficacy of Lf modified carriers, we designed that Lf and
muscone dual-modified
liposomes cross blood-brain barrier (BBB) and target to brain for enhanced
docetaxel (DTX) brain delivery. The results showed that we successfully prepared Lf and
muscone dual-modified
liposomes (Lf-LP-Mu-DTX), the number of Lf molecules connected to the surface of per
liposome was 28. Lf-LP-Mu-DTX increased uptake in both U87-MG cells and hCMEC/D3 cells, enhanced penetration of U87-MG
tumor spheroid and in vitro BBB model, had better in vitro and in vivo anti-
tumor effects. In conclusion, "guide" of
muscone modification enhanced brain-targeting efficacy of Lf modified
liposomes, Lf and
muscone dual-modified
docetaxel loaded
liposomes present a potential brain-targeting drug delivery system for use in the future treatment of
gliomas.