Water-insoluble anticancer drugs, including paclitaxel, present severe clinical side effects when administered to patients, primarily associated with the toxicity of reagents used to solubilize the drugs. In efforts to develop alternative formulations of water-insoluble anticancer drugs suitable for intravenous administration, we developed biocompatible anticancer therapeutic solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), mimicking the structure and composition of natural particles, low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), for tumor-targeted delivery of paclitaxel. These therapeutic nanoparticles contained water-insoluble paclitaxel in the core with tumor-targeting ligand covalently conjugated on the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified surface (targeted PtSLNs). In preclinical human cancer xenograft mouse model studies, the paclitaxel-containing tumor-targeting SLNs exhibited pronounced in vivo stability and enhanced biocompatibility. Furthermore, these SLNs had superior antitumor activity to in-class nanoparticular therapeutics in clinical use (Taxol and Genexol-PM) and yielded long-term complete responses. The in vivo targeted antitumor activities of the SLN formulations in a mouse tumor model suggest that LDL-mimetic SLN formulations can be utilized as a biocompatible, tumor-targeting platform for the delivery of various anticancer therapeutics.
Keywords: cancer therapy; paclitaxel; solid lipid nanoparticles; targeted drug delivery system; tumor targeting.