Selective delivery of doxorubicin by novel stimuli-sensitive nano-ferritins overcomes tumor refractoriness
2016
Fracasso, Giulio | Falvo, Elisabetta | Colotti, Gianni | Fazi, Francesco | Ingegnere, Tiziano | Amalfitano, Adriana | Doglietto, Giovanni Battista | Alfieri, Sergio | Boffi, Alberto | Morea, Veronica | Conti, Giamaica | Tremante, Elisa | Giacomini, Patrizio | Arcovito, Alessandro | Ceci, Pierpaolo
Human ferritin heavy chain (HFt) has been demonstrated to possess considerable potential for targeted delivery of drugs and diagnostic agents to cancer cells. Here, we report the development of a novel HFt-based genetic construct (HFt-MP-PAS) containing a short peptide linker (MP) between each HFt subunit and an outer shielding polypeptide sequence rich in proline (P), serine (S) and alanine (A) residues (PAS). The peptide linker contains a matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs) cleavage site that permits the protective PAS shield to be removed by tumor-driven proteolytic cleavage within the tumor microenvironment. For the first time HFt-MP-PAS ability to deliver doxorubicin to cancer cells, subcellular localization, and therapeutic efficacy on a xenogeneic mouse model of a highly refractory to conventional chemotherapeutics type of cancer were evaluated. HFt-MP-PAS-DOXO performance was compared with the novel albumin-based drug delivery system INNO-206, currently in phase III clinical trials. The results of this work provide solid evidence indicating that the stimuli-sensitive, long-circulating HFt-MP-PAS nanocarriers described herein have the potential to be exploited in cancer therapy.
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