Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a vitally important role during tumor progression. Navitoclax (Nav) can specifically induce apoptosis in CAFs. The present study aims to develop a novel CAF-targeted nanoliposome for cancer therapy. Nav-loaded nanoliposomes modified with peptide FH (FH-SSL-Nav), which specifically binds to tenascin C, a protein mainly expressed by CAFs, were formulated and characterized. Several experiments were performed to evaluate CAFs selective apoptosis, targeting and eradicating. Compared with SSL-Nav, FH-SSL-Nav achieved higher cellular uptake, and exhibited stronger cytotoxicity in vitro. The in vivo tumor stroma targeting effect was further confirmed by near infrared imaging. Accordingly, FH-SSL-Nav displayed improved tumor growth inhibition by eradicating CAFs in Hep G2 tumor-bearing nude mice model. In conclusion, FH-SSL-Nav could achieve targeting delivery of Nav to CAFs in vitro and in vivo, and may offer a potential strategy for cancer therapy based on tumor stroma. From the Clinical Editor: The progression of cancer cells often depends on the underlying tumor microenvironment, in which cancer-associated fibroblasts play an important role. In this article, the authors developed targeted therapy against CAFs using liposomes as carriers. This new modality was shown to be more effective in tumor killing both in vitro and in vivo. The finding may open a new era in cancer therapy.
Keywords: Cancer-associated fibroblasts; Nanoliposome; Navitoclax; Target delivery; Tenascin C; Tumor microenvironment.
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