How to overcome the low accumulation of chemotherapeutic agent in tumor tissue and exhibit multitherapeutics remains an ongoing challenge for cancer treatment. Here, a simple method is demonstrated that used to prepare prostate-specific membrane antigen antibody (PSMA )-conjugated fluorescent bovine serum albumin (BSA)-branched polyethylenimine layer-by-layer nanoparticles (BSA-PEI NPs) for co-delivery of docetaxel (DTX) and p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) small interfering RNA (p44/42 MAPK siRNA) as synergistic and selective inhibition of cancer cell proliferation platform. The results show the levels of α-tubulin and p44/42 MAPK in CWR22R cells are significantly reduced after treatment with PSMA -conjugated DTX/BSA-PEI /siRNA NPs. Consequently, the 50% cellular growth inhibition (IC ) values of the NPs loaded with both DTX and p44/42 MAPK siRNA are ≈2.1-fold less than those for the NPs only loaded with DTX. The median survival significantly prolongs from 18 d to upward 45 d compared to mice that receive same dose (12 mg kg ) of free DTX. The results suggest this synergistic delivery system may be a promising clinical treatment in prostate cancer.

Preventing tumor recurrence after surgical resection of a brain tumor is a significant clinical challenge because current methods deliver chemotherapeutic agents in a rapid manner and are not effective against the residual tumor cells. To overcome this drawback, we report a simple method to prepare magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) traceable ultra-thermosensitive hydrogels with rapid gelation ability from aqueous solution within 4 s at 28 °C for hydrophilic (epirubicin, EPI) and hydrophobic (paclitaxel, PTX) drugs co-delivery with bovine serum albumin nanoparticles (BSA NPs) incorporation. The results showed the average survival of gliosarcoma-bearing (MBR 614 or U87) mice receiving BSA/PTX NPs incorporated hydrogelGd/EPI increased to 63 days or 69 days with no tumor recurrence observed. Our synergistic strategy presents a new approach to the development of a local drug delivery system for the prevention of brain tumor recurrence.

To date, knowing how to identify the location of chemotherapeutic agents in the human body after injection is still a challenge. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a drug delivery system with molecular imaging tracking ability to accurately understand the distribution, location, and concentration of a drug in living organisms. In this study, we developed bovine serum albumin (BSA)-based nanoparticles (NPs) with dual magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence imaging modalities (fluorescein isothiocyanate [FITC]-BSA-Gd/1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea [BCNU] NPs) to deliver BCNU for inhibition of brain tumor cells (MBR 261-2). These BSA-based NPs are water dispersible, stable, and biocompatible as confirmed by XTT cell viability assay. In vitro phantoms and in vivo MR and fluorescence imaging experiments show that the developed FITC-BSA-Gd/BCNU NPs enable dual MR and fluorescence imaging for monitoring cellular uptake and distribution in tumors. The T1 relaxivity (R1) of FITC-BSA-Gd/BCNU NPs was 3.25 mM −1 s −1 , which was similar to that of the commercial T1 contrast agent (R1 =3.36 mM −1 s −1 ). The results indicate that this multifunctional drug delivery system has potential bioimaging tracking of chemotherapeutic agents ability in vitro and in vivo for cancer therapy.

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