Theranostics 2016; 6(1):142-154. doi:10.7150/thno.13130 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. School of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, P. R. China
2. Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, P. R. China
3. Division of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
One of the major challenges in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment is its insensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs. Here, we report the development of novel lipid-coated cisplatin nanoparticles co-loaded with microRNA-375 (NPC/miR-375) as a potential treatment for chemotherapy insensitive HCC. The NPC/miR-375 was fabricated by mixing two reverse microemulsions containing KCl solution and a highly soluble cis-diaminedihydroplatinum (II) coated with a cationic lipid layer. Subsequently, the miR-375 was incorporated into the lipid-coated cisplatin nanoparticles. The NPC/miR375 nanoparticles were expected to further decrease cell proliferation and to enhance the anti-tumor effect of cisplatin in chemotherapy resistant HCC cells. In vitro analysis of intracellular trafficking revealed that NPC/miR-375 were able to escape from the late endosomes instead of lysosomes thus avoiding degradation of the miR-375 in lysosomes. Importantly, NPC/miR-375 enhanced apoptosis and induced cell cycle arrest in HCC cells in vitro. In the double oncogenes Akt/Ras-induced primary HCC mouse model, multiple doses of NPC/miR-375 significantly inhibited tumor growth and delayed the tumor relapse. Our results indicate that cisplatin nanoparticles co-loaded with miR-375 represent a potential therapeutic agent for chemotherapy-insensitive HCC.
Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Co-delivery, miR-375, Cisplatin, Nanoparticles