Synthesis of a Gemcitabine Prodrug for Remote Loading into Liposomes and Improved Therapeutic Effect
作者:Jonathan P. May、Elijus Undzys、Aniruddha Roy、Shyh-Dar Li
DOI:10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5b00619
日期:2016.1.20
The chemotherapeutic gemcitabine was actively and stably loaded into lipid nanoparticles through the formation of a prodrug. Gemcitabine was chemically modified to increase the lipophilicity and introduce a weak base moiety for remote loading. Several derivatives were synthesized and screened for their potential to be good liposomal drug candidates for remote loading by studying their solubility, stability, cytotoxicity, and loading efficiency. Two morpholino derivatives of GEM (22 and 23) were chosen as the preferred prodrugs for this purpose as they possessed the best loading efficiencies (100% for drug-to-lipid ratio of 0.36 w/w). This is a considerable improvement over a passive loading strategy where typical loading efficiencies are on the order of ∼10–20% for a drug-to-lipid ratio of ∼0.01. Liposomes loaded with these two prodrugs were studied in an s.c. tumor model in vivo and showed improved therapeutic effect over free GEM (∼2-fold) and saline control (8- to 10-fold). This work demonstrates how chemical modification of a known hydrophilic drug can lead to improved loading, stability, and drug delivery in vivo.
化疗药物吉西他滨能通过形成前药的方式,被主动且稳定地装载到脂质纳米粒中。吉西他滨经过化学修饰,增加了亲脂性并引入了一个弱碱基团以实现被动装载。合成并筛选了几种衍生物,通过研究其溶解性、稳定性、细胞毒性和装载效率,评估它们作为脂质体被动装载药物候选物的潜力。两种吗啉衍生物(22和23)被选为最优的前药,因为它们具有最高的装载效率(药物与脂质的比率为0.36 w/w时,装载效率为100%)。这相较于被动装载策略有显著提升,后者在药物与脂质比率为约0.01时,典型装载效率仅为10-20%左右。装载了这两种前药的脂质体在体内皮下肿瘤模型中进行了研究,与自由吉西他滨(约2倍)和生理盐水对照组(8至10倍)相比,显示出更强的治疗效果。这项工作展示了如何通过化学修饰已知的亲水性药物,来提高其在体内的装载效率、稳定性和药物传递效果。