Drug Delivery Vehicle For Cancer Therapy Research Articles

Near-Infrared Light-Triggered Drug-Delivery Vehicle for Mitochondria-Targeted Chemo-Photothermal Therapy

A novel drug-delivery vehicle for mitochondria-targeted chemo-photothermal therapy was demonstrated. A cytochrome c-specific binding aptamer was employed to make the mesoporous silica-encapsulated gold nanorods efficiently accumulate in the mitochondria of cancer cells. This nanocarrier can load various hydrophobic therapeutic agents acting on mitochondria to enhance the therapeutic efficiency and simultaneously depress the toxic side effects. In addition, near-IR treatment could induce cytochrome c release and initiation of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Importantly, this multifunctional platform could integrate targeting, light-triggered release, and chemo-photothermal therapy into one system. We hope that such a system could open the door to the fabrication of a multifunctional mitochondria-targeted drug-delivery vehicle for cancer therapy.

Bioengineered Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles as Cell-Specific Drug-Delivery Vehicles for Cancer Therapy

Advances in genetic engineering tools have contributed to the development of strategies for utilizing biologically derived vesicles as nanomedicines for achieving cell-specific drug delivery. Here, we describe bioengineered bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) with low immunogenicity that can target and kill cancer cells in a cell-specific manner by delivering small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting kinesin spindle protein (KSP). A mutant Escherichia coli strain that exhibits reduced endotoxicity toward human cells was engineered to generate OMVs displaying a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-specific affibody in the membrane as a targeting ligand. Systemic injection of siRNA-packaged OMVs caused targeted gene silencing and induced highly significant tumor growth regression in an animal model. Importantly, the modified OMVs were well tolerated and showed no evidence of nonspecific side effects. We propose that bioengineered OMVs have great potential as cell-specific drug-delivery vehicles for treating various cancers.