The active targeting of gene carriers is a powerful strategy for improving tumour-specific delivery and therapy. Although numerous l-peptide ligands play significant roles in the active targeting of nanomedicine, retro-inverso d-peptides have been explored as targeting ligands due to their superior stability and bioactivity in vivo. In this study, retro-inverso d-peptide (RIF7)-modified hyaluronic acid (HA)/bioreducible hyperbranched poly(amido amine) (RHB)/plasmid DNA (pDNA) ternary nanoparticles were successfully developed using the layer-by-layer method for the CD44-positive tumour-specific delivery of short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-encoding pDNA through the combination of the Anxa1 (tumour vasculature) and CD44 (tumour cell-surface) receptors, which mediated the dual targeting. The potential of these newly designed nanoparticles was evaluated by examining the efficacy of their cellular uptake and transfection in cell monolayers, tumour spheroids, and malignant xenograft animal models. With negligible cytotoxicity, the spherical-shaped RIF7-HA/RHB/pDNA nanoparticles were the direct result of an electrostatic complex that had efficiently targeted CD44-positive tumour delivery, penetration, and cellular uptake in vitro. The nanoparticles showed excellent target-specific gene transfection even in the presence of serum. The in vivo therapeutic effect of RIF7-HA/RHB/pDNA-shRNA nanoparticle-mediated shRNA targeting of the Cyclin gene (shCyclin) was evaluated in tumour-bearing mice. The RIF7-HA/RHB/pDNA-shCyclin nanoparticles significantly increased the survival time of tumour-bearing mice and substantially reduced tumour growth due to their extremely specific tumour-targeting activity. These results suggested that the combination of HA and retro-inverso peptide RIF7 significantly increased the therapeutic effect of pDNA-shCyclin-loaded nanoparticles for CD44-positive tumours. Thus, RIF7-HA-mediated multi-target ternary gene vectors are an efficient and promising strategy for the delivery of pDNA-shRNA in the targeted treatment of malignant and metastatic cancers.Statement of SignificanceAlthough l-peptide ligands play significant roles in the active targeting of nanomedicine, retro-inverso d-peptides have been explored as targeting ligands due to their superior stability and bioactivity in vivo. Retro-inverso peptide RIF7 was designed as a ligand of Anxa1 receptor. The resultant peptide, RIF7, displayed high binding efficiency within Anxa1 receptor, which is highly expressed tumour vasculature cells and some tumour cells such as B16F10 and U87MG cells. The most important feature of RIF7 is its high stability in the blood, which is suitable and promising for application in vivo. Multifunctional RIF7-HA was then synthesized by conjugating the RIF7 peptide to HA, which was used to modify the surface of RHB/pDNA nanoparticles to prepare RIF7-HA/RHB/pDNA core-shell ternary nanoparticles for the dual-targeted delivery of shRNA-encoding plasmids in vitro and in vivo.Download high-res image (192KB)Download full-size image

The antitumor effect of chemotherapeutics loaded micelles mainly depends on two aspects: the accumulation in the tumor region and the penetration into the tumor interior. These two processes have different demands on particle size. The optimal particle size for enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) is commonly believed to be around 100 nm, while much smaller size is desired for deeper penetration into the tumor interior. To address these two different requirements, we constructed size-shifting micelle nanoclusters (MNC) based on a cross-linked framework interspersed with micelles. The particle size of the micelles was 14.6 ± 0.8 nm and increased to 104.2 ± 8.1 nm after the MNC were formed, leading to an effective utilization of the EPR effect. MNC were shifted to independent micelles in lysosomes, so that a more favorable particle size for penetration could be realized. The results of antitumor growth in vivo demonstrated that size-shifting MNC were more beneficial for tumor therapy than micelles.Keywords: deep penetration; micelle nanoclusters; pH-sensitive; polyethylenimine; size-shifting

Hyaluronic acid (HA), which can specifically bind to CD44 receptor, is a specific ligand for targeting to CD44-overexpressing cancer cells. The current study aimed to develop ternary nanoassemblies based on HA-coating for targeted gene delivery to CD44-positive tumors. A novel reducible hyperbranched poly(amido amine) (RHB) was assembled with plasmid DNA (pDNA) to form RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies. HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies were fabricated by coating HA on the surface of the RHB/pDNA nanoassembly core through electrostatic interaction. After optimization, HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies were spherical, core–shell nanoparticles with nanosize (187.6 ± 11.4 nm) and negative charge (−9.1 ± 0.3 mV). The ternary nanoassemblies could efficiently protect the condensed pDNA from enzymatic degradation by DNase I, and HA could significantly improve the stability of nanoassemblies in the sodium heparin solution or serum in vitro. As expected, HA significantly decreased the cytotoxicity of RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies due to the negative surface charges. Moreover, it revealed that HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies showed higher transfection activity than RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies in B16F10 cells, especially in the presence of serum in vitro. Because of the active recognition between HA and CD44 receptor, there was significantly different transfection efficiency between B16F10 (CD44+) and NIH3T3 (CD44-) cells after treatment with HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies. In addition, the cellular targeting and transfection activity of HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies were further evaluated in vivo. The results indicated that the interaction between HA and CD44 receptor dramatically improved the accumulation of HA/RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies in CD44-positive tumor, leading to higher gene expression than RHB/pDNA nanoassemblies. Therefore, HA/RHB/pDNA ternary nanoassemblies may be a potential gene vector for delivery of therapeutic genes to treat CD44-overexpressing tumors in vivo.

Along with intrinsic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) advantages, iron oxide nanomaterials capable of photothermal conversion have been reported very recently and have again raised great interest in their designs among biomedical researchers. However, like other inorganic nanomaterials, high macrophage uptake, short blood retention time and unfavorable biodistributions have strongly hampered their applications in vivo. To solve these problems, a rational design of red blood cell (RBC) membrane camouflaged iron oxide magnetic clusters (MNC@RBCs) is presented in this paper. Our data show that by simply introducing an “ultra-stealth” biomimetic coating to iron oxide magnetic nanoclusters (MNCs), MNC@RBCs maintain the imaging and photothermal functionalities inherited from MNCs cores while achieving much lower nonspecific macrophage uptake and dramatically altered fate in vivo. MNC@RBCs with superior prolonged blood retention time, preferred high tumor accumulation and relatively lowered liver biodistribution are demonstrated when injected intravenously in mice, leading to greatly enhanced photothermal therapeutic efficacy by a single treatment without further magnetic force manipulation. Our study illustrates a well prepared integration of MNCs and RBCs, exploiting advantages of both functionalities within a single unit and suggests a promising future for iron-based nanomaterials application in vivo.