Nasopharyngeal cancer-specific therapy based on fusion peptide-functionalized lipid nanoparticles

ACS Nano. 2014 May 27;8(5):4334-47. doi: 10.1021/nn405989n. Epub 2014 May 1.

Abstract

Current treatment of advanced-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is not satisfactory. Targeted therapies offer hope for extending survival. Here, we developed simple, robust, and NPC-specific therapeutic lipid nanoparticles based on a fusion peptide, α-NTP, made up of an amphipathic α-helical peptide (α-peptide) linked to an NPC-specific therapeutic peptide (NTP). We found that α-NTP not only retained the sub-30 nm nanostructure-controlling ability of the α-peptide but also displayed the enhanced NPC-targeting ability of the NTP, in which the α-peptide accelerated the uptake of the NTP by NPC cells, with a 4.8-fold increase. Following uptake, α-NTP-based lipid nanoparticles (α-NTP-LNs) exerted coordinated cytotoxicity by inducing cell death via apoptosis and autophagy. In vivo and ex vivo optical imaging data showed that systemically administered α-NTP-LNs efficiently accumulated in the NPC xenograft tumor and displayed high contrast between tumor and normal tissues, which was further confirmed by flow cytometry that there had been a 13-fold uptake difference between tumor cells and hepatocytes. More importantly, the therapeutic efficacy of α-NTP-LNs was specific to NPC xenograft formed with 5-8F cells but not to fibrosarcoma xenograft formed with HT1080 cells in vivo. The growth of 5-8F tumors was significantly inhibited by α-NTP-LNs, with more than 85% inhibition relative to control groups (e.g., α-NTP and PBS treatment). In a lung metastasis model of NPC, survival was significantly improved by α-NTP-LN treatment. In a word, these excellent properties of α-NTP-LNs worked in sync and synergistically, maximizing the therapeutic efficacy of α-NTP-LNs against NPC and its metastasis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Apoptosis
  • Autophagy
  • Carcinoma
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Contrast Media / chemistry
  • Drug Carriers
  • Flow Cytometry
  • Humans
  • Lipids / chemistry*
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Confocal
  • Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / chemistry

Substances

  • Contrast Media
  • Drug Carriers
  • Lipids
  • Peptides
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins