State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, China.
Institutes of Life Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Acta Biomater. 2022 Mar 1;140:492-505. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.11.042. Epub 2021 Dec 5.
Ferroptosis is a newly discovered non-apoptotic cell death form but its therapeutic efficacy triggered by traditional iron-based nanomaterials or classic drug inducers has been far from satisfactory due to the high glutathione (GSH) level in cancer cells and insufficient lipid peroxide production. Here we reported a ferroptosis/apoptosis combinational therapy by depleting GSH and downregulating GPX4 to disrupt redox homeostasis and amplify ferroptosis-related oxidation effect. In this study, we developed reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive serum-resistant nanoparticles with thioketal-crosslinked fluorinated polyethyleneimine 1.8K (PF) as the core, which were wrapped with hyaluronic acid (HA) as the shell (PFH NP) to co-deliver shGPX4 and shMTHFD2 plasmids for cancer treatment. The highly efficient and tumor-selective gene carrier PFH NPs revealed outstanding transfection efficiency (∼100 %) and sustained the efficiency (∼50 %) even in media containing 90 % FBS. Mediated by HA, PFH NPs actively targeted CD44 receptors, thus enabling efficient uptake by tumor cells and experiencing surface charge conversion to induce subsequent lysosomal escape. Then the PF NPs were effectively disintegrated by the abundant ROS in cancer cells, which facilitated the release of plasmids and avoided the cytotoxicity of cationic polymers. shGPX4 plasmid induced ferroptosis by producing ROS and lipid peroxides via downregulating GPX4, while shMTHFD2 triggered apoptosis by modulating NADPH/NADP and depleting GSH of the cancer cells. Moreover, GSH consumption caused by shMTHFD2 indirectly suppressed GPX4 and further augmented ferroptosis, showing synergistic anticancer effect against B16-F10 cells. Taken together, the rationally designed dual-gene loaded PFH NPs provided a safe and high-performance platform for enhanced ferroptosis-apoptosis combined anticancer efficacy based on gene therapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The therapeutic efficacy of ferroptosis has been far from satisfactory due to high GSH level and insufficient lipid peroxide production in cancer cells. Herein, we reported a ferroptosis/apoptosis combinational therapy by depleting GSH and downregulating GPX4 to disrupt redox homeostasis and amplify ferroptosis-related oxidation effect. ROS-responsive serum-resistant nanoparticles were fabricated with thioketal-crosslinked fluorinated PEI 1.8K (PF) as the core and hyaluronic acid (HA) as the shell (PFH NP) to co-deliver shGPX4 and shMTHFD2 plasmids. The shGPX4 plasmid induced ferroptosis by producing ROS and lipid peroxides via downregulating GPX4, while shMTHFD2 triggered apoptosis by modulating NADPH/NADP and depleting GSH. The rationally designed dual-gene loaded PFH NPs provided a safe and high-performance platform aimed for enhanced ferroptosis-apoptosis combined anticancer efficacy.
铁死亡是一种新发现的非细胞凋亡形式的细胞死亡,但由于癌细胞中谷胱甘肽 (GSH) 水平高和脂质过氧化物生成不足,传统的基于铁的纳米材料或经典药物诱导剂触发的治疗效果远不理想。在这里,我们报道了一种通过耗竭 GSH 和下调 GPX4 来破坏氧化还原平衡并放大铁死亡相关氧化作用的铁死亡/细胞凋亡联合治疗。在这项研究中,我们开发了一种具有活性氧 (ROS) 响应性的抗血清纳米颗粒,该纳米颗粒以硫代缩酮交联的氟代聚乙烯亚胺 1.8K (PF) 为核心,并用透明质酸 (HA) 作为外壳 (PFH NP) 包裹,以共同递送 shGPX4 和 shMTHFD2 质粒用于癌症治疗。高效且具有肿瘤选择性的基因载体 PFH NPs 显示出出色的转染效率(约 100%),即使在含有 90% FBS 的介质中,效率也能维持在约 50%。通过 HA 介导,PFH NPs 主动靶向 CD44 受体,从而使肿瘤细胞能够有效摄取,并经历表面电荷转换以诱导随后的溶酶体逃逸。然后,PF NPs 被癌细胞中丰富的 ROS 有效分解,这有助于质粒的释放,并避免阳离子聚合物的细胞毒性。shGPX4 质粒通过下调 GPX4 产生 ROS 和脂质过氧化物来诱导铁死亡,而 shMTHFD2 通过调节 NADPH/NADP 和耗竭癌细胞中的 GSH 来引发细胞凋亡。此外,shMTHFD2 引起的 GSH 消耗间接抑制了 GPX4,并进一步增强了铁死亡,对 B16-F10 细胞表现出协同的抗癌作用。总之,合理设计的双重基因负载的 PFH NPs 为基于基因治疗的增强铁死亡-细胞凋亡联合抗癌疗效提供了一个安全且高性能的平台。
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