Dendrimer-based multivalent methotrexates as dual acting nanoconjugates for cancer cell targeting
作者:Ming-Hsin Li、Seok Ki Choi、Thommey P. Thomas、Ankur Desai、Kyung-Hoon Lee、Alina Kotlyar、Mark M. Banaszak Holl、James R. Baker
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmech.2011.11.027
日期:2012.1
Cancer-targeting drug delivery can be based on the rational design of a therapeutic platform. This approach is typically achieved by the functionalization of a nanoparticle with two distinct types of molecules, a targeting ligand specific for a cancer cell, and a cytotoxic molecule to kill the cell. The present study aims to evaluate the validity of an alternative simplified approach in the design of cancer-targeting nanotherapeutics: conjugating a single type of molecule with dual activities to nanoparticles, instead of coupling a pair of orthogonal molecules. Herein we investigate whether this strategy can be validated by its application to methotrexate, a dual-acting small molecule that shows cytotoxicity because of its potent inhibitory activity against dihydrofolate reductase and that binds folic acid receptor, a tumor biomarker frequently upregulated on the cancer cell surface. This article describes a series of dendrimer conjugates derived from a generation 5 polyamidoamine (G5 PAMAM) presenting a multivalent array of methotrexate and also demonstrates their dual biological activities by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, a cell-free enzyme assay, and cell-based experiments with KB cancer cells. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.