Overexpression of the antiapoptotic protein B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) is correlated with poor survival outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), making Bcl-2 inhibition a promising strategy to treat this aggressive disease. Unfortunately, Bcl-2 inhibitors developed to date have limited clinical success against solid tumors, owing to poor bioavailability, insufficient tumor delivery, and off-target toxicity. To circumvent these problems, we loaded the Bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-737 in poly(lacticco-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) that were wrapped with phospholipid membranes derived from 4T1 murine mammary cancer cells, which mimic the growth and metastasis of human TNBC. We show that the biomimetic cancer cell membrane coating enabled the NPs to preferentially target 4T1 TNBC cells over noncancerous mammary epithelial cells in vitro and significantly increased NP accumulation in orthotopic 4T1 tumors in mice after intravenous injection by over 2-fold compared to poly(ethylene glycol)−poly(lactide-co-glycolic) (PEG−PLGA) copolymer NPs. Congruently, the ABT-737 loaded, cancer cell membrane-wrapped PLGA NPs (ABT CCNPs) induced higher levels of apoptosis in TNBC cells in vitro than ABT-737 delivered freely or in PEG−PLGA NPs. When tested in a syngeneic spontaneous metastasis model, the ABT CCNPs significantly increased apoptosis (evidenced by elevated active caspase-3 and decreased Bcl-2 staining) and decreased proliferation (denoted by reduced Ki67 staining) throughout tumors compared with saline or ABT-loaded PEG−PLGA NP controls. Moreover, the ABT CCNPs did not alter animal weight or blood composition, suggesting that the specificity afforded by the TNBC cell membrane coating mitigated the off-target adverse effects typically associated with ABT-737. Despite these promising results, the low dose of ABT CCNPs administered only modestly reduced primary tumor growth and metastatic nodule formation in the lungs relative to controls. We posit that increasing the dose of ABT CCNPs, altering the treatment schedule, or encapsulating a more potent Bcl-2 inhibitor may yield more robust effects on tumor growth and metastasis. With further development, drug-loaded biomimetic NPs may safely treat solid tumors such as TNBC that are characterized by Bcl-2 overexpression.
Cancer is a global health problem that needs effective treatment strategies. Conventional treatments for solid-tumor cancers are unsatisfactory because they cause unintended harm to healthy tissues and are susceptible to cancer cell resistance. Nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy is a minimally invasive treatment for solid-tumor cancers that has immense promise as a standalone therapy or adjuvant to other treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or radiotherapy. To maximize the success of photothermal therapy, light-responsive nanoparticles can be camouflaged with cell membranes to endow them with unique biointerfacing capabilities that reduce opsonization, prolong systemic circulation, and improve tumor delivery through enhanced passive accumulation or homotypic targeting. This ensures a sufficient dose of photoresponsive nanoparticles arrives at tumor sites to enable their complete thermal ablation. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art in cell membrane camouflaged nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy and provides insights to the path forward for clinical translation.
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