Paclitaxel is a standard and effective chemotherapeutic agent for many cancer types. However, Cremophor EL in the formulation of PTX (Taxol(R)) causes significant side effects such as allergic reactions. A novel Cremophor-free polymeric nanocarrier is proposed to avoid the side effects and to deliver PTX selectively to the tumor sites to improve the antitumor effects in breast cancer treatment. A linear-dendritic amphiphilic polymer system (named as telodendrimer), composed of a dendritic oligomer of cholic acids linked to a polyethylene glycol (PEG), self-assembles under aqueous environment to form stable micelles that can encapsulate hydrophobic drugs. This telodendrimer system has unique properties that are superior to many published micelle-based nanoparticles, due to the unique facial amphiphilicity of cholic acid and the linear- dendritic shape of the polymer. These telodendrimers have well defined structures and multiple functional groups and the micelles formed by the telodendrimers have tunable sizes, after loaded with high content of PTX. To our knowledge, this telodendrimers has the highest PTX loading capacity (50% w/w drug/polymer) among the conventional polymeric micelle systems reported in literature, such as the most impressive loading of PTX in PEG-PDLLA (25% w/w). Also, the stability of the drug loaded micelle was observed to be very stale in size upon storage, and no further aggregation was observed over six months. Preliminary data of the tumor targeting properties via enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects of nanoparticles in transgenic mouse mammary tumor model, syngeneic mammary cancer model as well as xenograft models and the antitumor effects in xenograft models are promising. However, only a limited number of telodendrimers have been tested. We believe there is room for further improvement and optimization. We hypothesize that the in vivo tumor targeting and antitumor effects of these nanotherapeutics are determined by their size, drug loading capacity and their stability, and these properties depend on (i) the number and arrangement of cholic acid molecules and (ii) the PEG chain length and (iii) the hindrance of the oligomer of cholic acid. These PTX- loaded nanoparticles (Nanoxane) have been shown to be targeting therapeutic by themselves via EPR effect. Decorated with cancer targeting ligands, these nanocarriers will be more efficient in delivering drugs to the tumor sites and enhancing the tumor penetration of the therapeutics. In this application we will design and combinatorially synthesize 52 novel amphiphilic polymers with various architectures for the optimization of nanocarriers. The physicochemical properties and cytotoxicity of the telodendrimers and resulting nanocarriers will be characterized. The selected polymers will be further screened in the in vivo tumor targeting and biodistribution studies via optical imaging, liquid scintillation counting and microSPECT imaging in mouse models bearing spontaneous or xenograft tumors. Finally, the in vivo toxicity and anti-tumor properties of the optimized Nanoxane and ligand-nanoxanes will be evaluated in animal models.

Public Health Relevance

Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, First, Middle): LUO, Juntao Size-tunable cancer nanotherapeutics Project Narrative Cremophor EL-free nanoformulation of paclitaxel (PTX) has been developed to avoid severe side effects of Cremophor in the formulation of Taxol(R) and to improve the anti-cancer effects. By the enhanced permeability and retention effects of the nanocarriers, this nanoformulation of PTX has been shown to be a targeting therapeutic by itself, which can be further enhanced via the decoration of the nanocarrier with cancer targeting ligands. At the end of this application, more efficient nanocarriers will be selected through the structure optimization and property evaluations, and will be pursued for future clinical development to improve the breast cancer treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01CA140449-02
Application #
8098834
Study Section
Nanotechnology Study Section (NANO)
Program Officer
Fu, Yali
Project Start
2010-07-01
Project End
2015-04-30
Budget Start
2011-07-07
Budget End
2012-04-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$320,531
Indirect Cost
Name
Upstate Medical University
Department
Pharmacology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
058889106
City
Syracuse
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
13210
Guo, Dandan; Shi, Changying; Wang, Xu et al. (2017) Riboflavin-containing telodendrimer nanocarriers for efficient doxorubicin delivery: High loading capacity, increased stability, and improved anticancer efficacy. Biomaterials 141:161-175
Burrer, Christine M; Auburn, Helen; Wang, Xu et al. (2017) Mcl-1 small-molecule inhibitors encapsulated into nanoparticles exhibit increased killing efficacy towards HCMV-infected monocytes. Antiviral Res 138:40-46
Wang, Xu; Shi, Changying; Zhang, Li et al. (2016) Affinity-controlled protein encapsulation into sub-30 nm telodendrimer nanocarriers by multivalent and synergistic interactions. Biomaterials 101:258-71
Wang, Xu; Bodman, Alexa; Shi, Changying et al. (2016) Tunable Lipidoid-Telodendrimer Hybrid Nanoparticles for Intracellular Protein Delivery in Brain Tumor Treatment. Small 12:4185-92
Shi, Changying; Guo, Dandan; Xiao, Kai et al. (2015) A drug-specific nanocarrier design for efficient anticancer therapy. Nat Commun 6:7449
Jiang, Wenjuan; Luo, Juntao; Nangia, Shikha (2015) Multiscale approach to investigate self-assembly of telodendrimer based nanocarriers for anticancer drug delivery. Langmuir 31:4270-80
Xu, Gaofei; Shi, Changying; Guo, Dandan et al. (2015) Functional-segregated coumarin-containing telodendrimer nanocarriers for efficient delivery of SN-38 for colon cancer treatment. Acta Biomater 21:85-98
Cai, Liqiong; Xu, Gaofei; Shi, Changying et al. (2015) Telodendrimer nanocarrier for co-delivery of paclitaxel and cisplatin: A synergistic combination nanotherapy for ovarian cancer treatment. Biomaterials 37:456-468
Huang, Wenzhe; Wang, Xu; Shi, Changying et al. (2015) Fine-tuning vitamin E-containing telodendrimers for efficient delivery of gambogic acid in colon cancer treatment. Mol Pharm 12:1216-29
Shao, Yu; Jia, Yong-Guang; Shi, Changying et al. (2014) Block and random copolymers bearing cholic acid and oligo(ethylene glycol) pendant groups: aggregation, thermosensitivity, and drug loading. Biomacromolecules 15:1837-44

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