The resistance of tumor cells to anticancer drugs has become one of the principal causes of the failure in clinical chemotherapy. To overcome this issue, developing feasible drug delivery systems for effective cancer therapy is urgently needed. In this work, we construct an amphiphilic drug self-delivery system consisting of Taxol and tyroservatide (YSV) to overcome drug resistance. The carrier-free supramolecular hydrogel composed of nanofibers is formed by the involved ester bond self-hydrolysis process, which has high drug loading efficiency and facilitates the delivery of both the hydrophobic Taxol and hydrophilic YSV. Because of the dual inhibitory function of YSV on histone deacetylase and P-glycoprotein, an improved combinational anticancer effect of the molecule against drug-resistant tumor cells in vitro is achieved. Furthermore, the designed drug self-delivery system exhibited enhanced antitumor efficiency and favorable biocompatibility in vivo when administered by tail vein injection. Our study provides a new strategy for fabricating a carrier-free supramolecular hydrogel to overcome drug resistance, which might open up an alternative avenue for the tumor combinational therapy.

No abstract

In general, herbal medicines have been considered as safe by the general public, since they are naturally occurring and have been applied in treatment for over thousands of years. As the use of herbal medicine is rapidly increasing globally, the potential toxicity of herbal drugs, in particular drug-induced liver injury (DILI), has now become a serious medical issue. According to the literature, the authors analyzed and discussed the hepatotoxicity problem of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM), including global overview on herbal-induced liver injury (HILI), current research progress on toxic CHM, diagnosis and treatment of HILI, and modern approaches and technologies of study of hepatotoxicity. As to promote the recognition of HILI and tackle the issue, a guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of HILI has recently been drafted by Chinese scientists. As suggested by the guideline, the hepatotoxicity issue of CHM, as a matter of fact, is overestimated. Up to date, the investigation of hepatotoxicity of CHM is now booming with worldwide application of CHM. This review therefore provides useful information for investigating hepatotoxicity of herbal medicine and characterizing DILI caused by CHM. In addition, authors describe in which way further efforts should be made to study the rationale of CHM and liver injury.

We reported a peptide-based supramolecular hydrogel possessing a gel–sol phase transition triggered by H2O2.