Mitochondria apoptosis pathway synergistically activated by hierarchical targeted nanoparticles co-delivering siRNA and lonidamine.

Bing-Feng Zhang, Lei Xing, Peng-Fei Cui, Feng-Zhen Wang, Rong-Lin Xie, Jia-Liang Zhang, Mei Zhang, Yu-Jing He, Jin-Yuan Lyu, Jian-Bin Qiao, Bao-An Chen, Hu-Lin Jiang

Index: Biomaterials 61 , 178-89, (2015)

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Abstract

The mitochondria-mediated apoptosis pathway is an effective option for cancer therapy due to the presence of cell-suicide weapons in mitochondria. However, anti-apoptotic proteins that are over-expressed in the mitochondria of many malignant tumors, such as Bcl-2 protein, could allow the cancer cells to evade apoptosis, greatly reducing the efficacy of this type of chemotherapy. Here, we constructed a hierarchical targeted delivery system that can deliver siRNA and chemotherapeutic agents sequentially to tumor cells and mitochondria. In detail, the copolymer TPP-CP-LND (TCPL) was synthesized by the mitochondria-targeting ligand triphenylphosphine (TPP) and therapeutic drug lonidamine (LND) conjugated to the polyethyleneimine in chitosan-graft-PEI (CP), and then complexed with siRNA. Followed, the complexes were coated with poly(acrylic acid)-polyethylene glycol-folic acid (PPF) copolymer to form a hierarchical targeted co-delivery system (TCPL/siRNA/PPF NPs). The TCPL/siRNA/PPF NPs had a neutral surface charge, were stable in plasma and exhibited pH-responsive shell separation. Remarkably, the TCPL/siRNA/PPF NPs simultaneously released siBcl-2 into the cytoplasm and delivered LND to mitochondria in the same cancer cell after FA-directed internalization, and even synergistically activated mitochondria apoptosis pathway. This work demonstrated the potential of RNA-interference and mitochondria-targeted chemotherapeutics to collaboratively stimulate the mitochondria apoptosis pathway for cancer therapy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.