The active targeting drug delivery system based on special types of endogenous cells such as macrophages has emerged as a promising strategy for
tumor therapy, owing to its
tumor homing property and biocompatibility. In this work, the active
tumor-targeting drug delivery system carrying
doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles (DOX@MPF127-MCP-1, DMPM) on macrophage (RAW264.7) surfaces via the mediation of interaction with the CCR2/MCP-1 axis was exploited. Initially, the amphiphilic block copolymer
Pluronic F127 (PF127) was carboxylated to MPF127 at the
hydroxyl terminus. Subsequently, MPF127 was modified with MCP-1
peptide to prepare MPF127-MCP-1 (MPM). The DOX was wrapped in MPM to form DMPM nanomicelles (approximately 100 nm) during the self-assembly process of MPM. The DMPM spontaneously bound to macrophages (RAW264.7), which resulted in the construction of an actively targeting delivery system (macrophage-DMPM, MA-DMPM) in vitro and in vivo. The DOX in MA-DMPM was released in the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) in a pH-responsive manner to increase DOX accumulation and enhance the
tumor treatment effect. The ratio of MA-DMPM homing reached 220% in vitro compared with the control group, indicating that the MA-DMPM was excellently capable of
tumor-targeting delivery. In in vivo experiments,
nonsmall cell lung cancer cell (NCI-H1299)
tumor models were established. The results of the fluorescence imaging system (IVIS) showed that MA-DMPM demonstrated tremendous
tumor-targeting ability in vivo. The antitumor effects of MA-DMPM in vivo indicated that the proportion of
tumor cell apoptosis in the DMPM-treated group was 63.33%. The findings of the
tumor-bearing mouse experiment proved that MA-DMPM significantly suppressed
tumor cell growth, which confirmed its immense potential and promising applications in
tumor therapy.