Infrared Responsive Choline Phosphate Lipids for Synergistic Cancer Therapy

Choline phosphate lipids have been designed and developed as new-generation zwitterionic nanocarriers with excellent biocompatibility and bioorthogonality to provide a more programmable performance for cancer therapy. However, there is a lack of spatiotemporal and reversible control for drug release at target tumor cells, which can lead to severe adverse effects to normal tissue and discounted treatment outcome. Here, light-inducible Lip-cRGDfk/ICG/Dox liposomes were developed for synergistic cancer therapy. ICG can effectively convert light energy into selective heating in a local environment upon laser irradiation, thus inducing thermal ablation of tumor cells, and further reversibly trigger the spatiotemporal release of anticancer drugs (Dox) at tumor cells due to the conformation transformation of CP lipids to synergistically kill tumor cells. That Lip-cRGDfk/ICG/Dox exhibited a significant improvement for breast cancer therapy in vitro and in vivo is also demonstrated, thus it can serve as an efficient platform to noninvasively and spatiotemporally control the activation of cytotoxicity at tumor cells for precision cancer therapy.     

Bis‐clickable Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles: Straightforward Preparation of Light‐Actuated Nanomachines for Controlled Drug Delivery with Active Targeting

Bis(clickable) mesoporous silica nanospheres (ca. 100 nm) were obtained by the co‐condensation of TEOS with variable amounts (2–5 % each) of two clickable organosilanes in the presence of CTAB. Such nanoparticles could be easily functionalized with two independent functions using the copper‐catalyzed alkyne‐azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction to transform them into nanomachines bearing cancer cell targeting ligands with the ability to deliver drugs on‐demand. The active targeting was made possible after anchoring folic acid by CuAAC click reaction, whereas the controlled delivery was performed by clicked azobenzene fragments. Indeed, the azobenzene groups are able to obstruct the pores of the nanoparticles in the dark whereas upon irradiation in the UV or in the blue range, their trans‐to‐cis photoisomerization provokes disorder in the pores, enabling the delivery of the cargo molecules. The on‐command delivery was proven in solution by dye release experiments, and in vitro by doxorubicin delivery. The added value of the folic acid ligand was clearly evidenced by the difference of cell killing induced by doxorubicin‐loaded nanoparticles under blue irradiation, depending on whether the particles featured the clicked folic acid ligand or not.     

Emerging Design Principle of Near-Infrared Upconversion Sensitizer Based on Mitochondria-Targeted Organic Dye for Enhanced Photodynamic Therapy

Upconversion luminescent (UCL) triggered photodynamic therapy (PDT) affords superior outcome for cancer treatment. However, conventional UCL materials which all work by a multiphoton absorption (MPA) process inevitably need extremely high power density far over the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) to laser. Here, a one-photon absorption molecular upconversion sensitizer Cy5.5-Br based on frequency upconversion luminescent (FUCL) is designed for PDT. The unusual super heavy atom effect (SHAE) in Cy5.5-Br strongly enhances its spin-orbit coupling (0.23 cm⁻¹), triplet quantum yield (11.1 %) and triplet state lifetime (18.8 μs) while the potential hot-band absorption of Cy5.5-Br is well maintained. Importantly, Cy5.5-Br can efficiently target the tumour site and kill cancer cells by destroying mitochondria under a biosafety MPE to 808 nm laser. The photostability and antitumor results are obviously superior to that of a Stokes process. This work provides a design criterion for FUCL dyes to realize effective PDT upon a biosafety optical density, possibly bringing more clinical benefits than conventional MPA materials.     

Advances towards Cell-Specific Gene Transfection: A Small-Molecule Approach Allows Order-of-Magnitude Selectivity

A transfection vector that can home in on tumors is reported. Whereas previous vectors that allow moderately cell selective gene transfection used larger systems, this small-molecule approach paved the way for precise structure-activity relationship optimization. For this, biotin, which mediates cell selectivity, was combined with the potent DNA-binding motif tetralysine-guanidinocarbonypyrrol via a hydrophilic linker, thus enabling SAR-based optimization. The new vector mediated biotin receptor (BR)-selective transfection of cell lines with different BR expression levels. Computer-based analyses of microscopy images revealed a preference of one order of magnitude for the BR-positive cell lines over the BR-negative controls.     

Lysosome‐targeted potent half‐sandwich iridium(III) α‐diimine antitumor complexes

Fifteen organometallic Ir(III) half‐sandwich complexes ( 1A – 5C ) having the general formula [(η⁵‐Cp^x)Ir(N^N)Cl]PF₆ (Cp^x = Cp*, tetramethyl(phenyl)cyclopentadienyl (Cp^xph) or tetramethyl(biphenyl)cyclopentadienyl (Cp^xbiph); N^N = diamine) have been synthesized and characterized. The molecular structure of 1A was determined using single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. The hydrolysis of 1A – 5C was monitored using UV–visible spectra. Complexes 3A – 3C showed catalytic activity for the oxidation of NADH to NAD⁺, where 3C showed the highest turnover number of 29.9 within 450 min. Cytotoxicity examination by MTT assay was carried out against two human cancer cell lines (HeLa and A549) after 24 or 48 h drug treatment. The complexes showed high potency, where the most potent complex ( 3C ; IC₅₀ = 3.4 μM) was six times more active than cisplatin against A549 cells after 24 h drug exposure. Cytotoxic potency towards A549 cells increased with phenyl substitution on Cp ring: Cp^xbiph > Cp^xph > Cp*. In addition, the biological studies showed that 3C caused cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G₁ phase in A549 cancer cells. Moreover, 3C increased the level of reactive oxygen species markedly after 24 h, which may provide an important basis for killing cancer cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to track 3C in A549 cells. The cellular localization experiment showed that 3C targeted lysosomes and caused lysosomal damage.     

CONFORMATIONAL PREFERENCES ABOUT Cpy-S BONDS IN DI-2-PYRIDYL DISULFIDE

Abstract

The total energy, dipole moment and electron densities for each possible rotational conformation about the C_py-S bonds of di-2-pyridyl disulfide were evaluated by using the semi-quantitative CNDO/2 method. The conformations in which the pyridine rings are coplanar with the valency plane of the bonded sulfur atom (cis-cis, cis-trans and trans-trans) were predicted to be the most favored ones.

Results of the theoretical study, when compared to some experimental determinations such as dipole moment and variable temperature pmr spectra, provided evidence that easy interconversion between these conformations can occur.     

Synthesis of Cholesterylated Thiogalactosides for Gene Delivery

A series of cholesterylated thiogalactosides L₁ –L₆ the cell targeting ligands for gene delivery to hepatocytes, was synthesized. Related poly(ethylene glycol) chain was used as a bridge for the attachment of galactoside on one hydroxyl end, while the other hydroxyl end was linked with cholesterol. This design provided an effective entry for the synthesis of a poly(ethylene glycol) compound with the hepatocyte targeting.