No abstract

It is increasingly evident that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play an important role in tumor invasion, proliferation, and metastasis. While delivery of drugs, imaging agents and vaccines to TAMs was achieved by exploiting membrane receptors on TAMs, the uptake by normal macrophages remains an issue. In this communication, we report a PEG-sheddable, mannose-modified nanoparticle platform that can efficiently target TAMs via mannose-mannose receptor recognition after acid-sensitive PEG shedding in the acidic tumor microenvironment, while their uptake by normal macrophages in the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) organs was significantly reduced due to effective PEG shielding at neutral pH. These nanoparticles have the potential to target drugs of interest to TAMs, with decreased uptake by normal macrophages.

No abstract

The obtained results suggested that PPCD conjugates with highest PEGylation degree would be a potential candidate for solid tumor treatment.

Stimulus-sensitive micelles are attractive anticancer drug delivery systems. Herein we reported a novel strategy to engineer acid-sensitive micelles using a amphiphilic material synthesized by directly conjugating the hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) with a hydrophobic stearic acid derivative (C18) using an acid-sensitive hydrazone bond (PHC). An acid-insensitive PEG-amide-C18 (PAC) compound was also synthesized as a control. 4-(N)-stearoyl gemcitabine (GemC18), a prodrug of the nucleoside analog gemcitabine, was loaded into the micelles, and they were found to be significantly more cytotoxic to tumor cells than GemC18 solution, likely due to the lysosomal delivery of GemC18 by micelles. Moreover, GemC18 in the acid-sensitive PHC micelles was more cytotoxic than in the acid-insensitive PAC micelles, which may be attributed to the acid-sensitive release of GemC18 from the PHC micelles in lysosomes. In B16-F10 melanoma-bearing mice, GemC18-loaded PHC or PAC micelles showed a stronger antitumor activity than GemC18 or gemcitabine solution, likely because of the prolonged circulation time and increased tumor accumulation of the GemC18 by the micelles. Importantly, the in vivo antitumor activity of GemC18-loaded PHC micelles was significantly stronger than that of the PAC micelles, demonstrating the potential of the novel acid-sensitive micelles as an anticancer drug delivery system.