Investigating the crucial roles of aliphatic tails in disulfide bond-linked docetaxel prodrug nanoassemblies

Disulfide bond-bridging strategy has been extensively utilized to construct tumor specificity-responsive aliphatic prodrug nanoparticles(PNPs) for precise cancer therapy. Yet, there is no research shedding light on the impacts of the saturation and cis-trans configuration of aliphatic tails on the self-assembly capacity of disulfide bond-linked prodrugs and the in vivo delivery fate of PNPs. Herein, five disulfide bond-linked docetaxelfatty acid prodrugs are designed and synthesized by using stearic acid, elaidic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid as the aliphatic tails, respectively. Interestingly, the cistrans configuration of aliphatic tails significantly influences the self-assembly features of prodrugs, and elaidic acid-linked prodrug with a trans double bond show poor self-assembly capacity. Although the aliphatic tails have almost no effect on the redox-sensitive drug release and cytotoxicity, different aliphatic tails significantly influence the chemical stability of prodrugs and the colloidal stability of PNPs, thus affecting the in vivo pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and antitumor efficacy of PNPs. Our findings illustrate how aliphatic tails affect the assembly characteristic of disulfide bond-linked aliphatic prodrugs and the in vivo delivery fate of PNPs, and thus provide theoretical basis for future development of disulfide bond-bridged aliphatic prodrugs.

Metal complexes induced ferroptosis for anticancer therapy

Metal complexes for anti-tumor treatment have been developed rapidly in recent decades since the application of cisplatin in clinics.However,some tumor cells are resistant to apoptosis and not sensitive to metallodrugs that function through the apoptotic pathway.Recently,metal complexes have been reported to cause ferropto-sis against tumor cells,which offers new opportunities for anticancer therapy.In this perspective,ferroptosis-inducing metal complexes and their working mechanisms are introduced,while the challenges and opportunities are also discussed.

Precisely engineering a dual-drug cooperative nanoassembly for proteasome inhibition-potentiated photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy(PDT) has been widely investigated for cancer therapy. The intracellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species(ROS)-damaged protein facilitates tumor cell apoptosis. However, there is growing evidence that the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway(UPP) significantly impedes PDT by preventing the enrichment of ROS-damaged proteins in tumor cells. To tackle this challenge, we report a facile dual-drug nanoassembly based on the discovery of an interesting co-assembly of bortezomib(BTZ, a proteasome inhibitor) and pyropheophorbide a(PPa) for proteasome inhibition-mediated PDT sensitization.The precisely engineered nanoassembly with the optimal dose ratio of BTZ and PPa demonstrates multiple advantages, including simple fabrication, high drug co-loading efficiency, flexible dose adjustment,good colloidal stability, long systemic circulation, favorable tumor-specific accumulation, as well as significant enrichment of ROS-damaged proteins in tumor cells. As a result, the cooperative nanoassembly exhibits potent synergistic antitumor activity in vivo. This study provides a novel dual-drug engineering modality for multimodal cancer treatment.