Tumor Microenvironment Multiple Responsive Nanoparticles for Targeted Delivery of Doxorubicin and CpG Against Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

  • Int J Nanomedicine. 2022 Sep 20:17:4401-4417. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S377702.
Fenfen Gu  #  1 Chuling Hu  #  2 Wei Cao  #  3 Chao Li  1 Qingming Xia  4 Yuan Gao  4 Yan Liu  1 Shen Gao  1  4
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
  • 2. Jiaxing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Jiaxing, People's Republic of China.
  • 3. Department of Neurovascular Disease, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
  • 4. Department of Pharmacy, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Introduction: Currently, the main treatment for advanced breast Cancer is still chemotherapy. Immunological and chemical combination therapy has a coordinated therapeutic effect and achieves some efficacy. However, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment is a major cause for the failure of immunotherapy in breast Cancer. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides can activate the tumor immune microenvironment to reverse the failure of immunotherapy.

Methods: In this study, we designed an amphiphilic peptide micelle system (Co-LMs), which can targeted delivery of the immune Adjuvant CpG and the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin to breast Cancer tumors simultaneously. The peptide micelle system achieved tumor microenvironment pH and redox-sensitive drug release.

Results and discussion: Co-LMs showed 2.3 times the antitumor efficacy of chemotherapy alone and 5.1 times the antitumor efficacy of immunotherapy alone in triple-negative breast Cancer mice. Co-LMs activated cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes and CD4+ T cells in mice to a greater extent than single treatments. We also found that Co-LMs inhibited the metastasis of circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream to some extent. These results indicate that the Co-LMs offer a promising therapeutic strategy against triple-negative breast Cancer.

Keywords
CpG; chemo-immunotherapy; nanoparticles; triple-negative breast cancer; tumor microenvironment.
Products