TY - JOUR
T1 - Medical treatment of orthotopic glioblastoma with transferrin conjugated nanoparticles encapsulating zoledronic acid
AU - Porru, Manuela
AU - Zappavigna, Silvia
AU - Salzano, Giuseppina
AU - Luce, Amalia
AU - Stoppacciaro, Antonella
AU - Balestrieri, Maria Luisa
AU - Artuso, Simona
AU - Lusa, Sara
AU - De Rosa, Giuseppe
AU - Leonetti, Carlo
AU - Caraglia, Michele
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Glioblastomas are highly aggressive adult brain tumors with poor clinical outcome. In the central nervous system (CNS) the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the most important limiting factor for both development of new drugs and drug delivery. Here, we propose a new strategy to treat glioblastoma based on transferrin (Tf)- targeted self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) incorporating zoledronic acid (ZOL) (NPs-ZOL-Tf). NPs-ZOL-Tf have been assessed on the glioblastoma cell line U373MGLUC that showed a refractoriness in vitro to temozolomide (TMZ) and fotemustine (FTM). NPs-ZOL-Tf treatment resulted in higher in vitro cytotoxic activity than free ZOL. However, the potentiation of anti-proliferative activity of NPs-ZOL-Tf was superimposable to that one induced by NPs-ZOL (not armed with Tf). On the other hand, NPs-ZOL-Tf showed a higher antitumor efficacy if compared with that one caused by NPs-ZOL in immunosuppressed mice intramuscularly bearing U373MG-LUC xenografts, inducing a significant tumor weight inhibition (TWI). The experiments performed on mice with intracranial U373MG-LUC xenografts confirmed the efficacy of NPs-ZOL-Tf. These effects were paralleled by a higher intratumour localization of fluorescently-labeled-NPs-Tf both in intramuscular and intracranial xenografts. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the encapsulation of ZOL increases the antitumor efficacy of this drug in glioblastoma through the acquisition of ability to cross the BBB.
AB - Glioblastomas are highly aggressive adult brain tumors with poor clinical outcome. In the central nervous system (CNS) the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the most important limiting factor for both development of new drugs and drug delivery. Here, we propose a new strategy to treat glioblastoma based on transferrin (Tf)- targeted self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) incorporating zoledronic acid (ZOL) (NPs-ZOL-Tf). NPs-ZOL-Tf have been assessed on the glioblastoma cell line U373MGLUC that showed a refractoriness in vitro to temozolomide (TMZ) and fotemustine (FTM). NPs-ZOL-Tf treatment resulted in higher in vitro cytotoxic activity than free ZOL. However, the potentiation of anti-proliferative activity of NPs-ZOL-Tf was superimposable to that one induced by NPs-ZOL (not armed with Tf). On the other hand, NPs-ZOL-Tf showed a higher antitumor efficacy if compared with that one caused by NPs-ZOL in immunosuppressed mice intramuscularly bearing U373MG-LUC xenografts, inducing a significant tumor weight inhibition (TWI). The experiments performed on mice with intracranial U373MG-LUC xenografts confirmed the efficacy of NPs-ZOL-Tf. These effects were paralleled by a higher intratumour localization of fluorescently-labeled-NPs-Tf both in intramuscular and intracranial xenografts. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the encapsulation of ZOL increases the antitumor efficacy of this drug in glioblastoma through the acquisition of ability to cross the BBB.
KW - Calcium phosphate self-assembly nanoparticles
KW - Delivery
KW - Glioblastoma
KW - Intracranial xenografts
KW - Transferrin
KW - Zoledronic acid
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84916899852&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84916899852&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 25431953
AN - SCOPUS:84916899852
VL - 5
SP - 10446
EP - 10459
JO - Oncotarget
JF - Oncotarget
SN - 1949-2553
IS - 21
ER -