Alves Ana, Silva Ana Margarida, Nunes Claúdia, Cravo Sara, Reis Salette, Pinto Madalena, Sousa Emília, Rodrigues Francisca, Ferreira Domingos, Costa Paulo C, Correia-da-Silva Marta
UCIBIO-Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit, MedTech-Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
Laboratory of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
Life (Basel). 2024 Jan 17;14(1):132. doi: 10.3390/life14010132.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and deadly primary malignant brain tumor. Current therapies are insufficient, and survival for individuals diagnosed with GBM is limited to a few months. New GBM treatments are urgent. Polymeric nanoparticles (PNs) can increase the circulation time of a drug in the brain capillaries. Polymersomes (PMs) are PNs that have been described as having attractive characteristics, mainly due to their stability, prolonged circulation period, biodegradability, their ability to sustain the release of drugs, and the possibility of surface functionalization. In this work, a poly(ethylene glycol)-ε-caprolactone (PEG-PCL) copolymer was synthesized and PMs were prepared and loaded with an hydrolytic instable compound, previously synthesized by our research team, the 3,6-bis(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-β-glucopyranosyl)xanthone (XGAc), with promising cytotoxicity on glioblastoma cells (U-373 MG) but also on healthy cerebral endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3). The prepared PMs were spherical particles with uniform morphology and similar sizes (mean diameter of 200 nm) and were stable in aqueous suspension. The encapsulation of XGAc in PMs (80% encapsulation efficacy) protected the healthy endothelial cells from the cytotoxic effects of this compound, while maintaining cytotoxicity for the glioblastoma cell line U-373 MG. Our studies also showed that the prepared PMs can efficiently release XGAc at intratumoral pHs.
胶质母细胞瘤(GBM)是最常见且致命的原发性恶性脑肿瘤。目前的治疗方法并不充分,被诊断为GBM的患者生存期仅为几个月。亟需新的GBM治疗方法。聚合物纳米颗粒(PNs)可以延长药物在脑毛细血管中的循环时间。聚合物囊泡(PMs)是一种PNs,因其稳定性、延长的循环周期、生物可降解性、持续释放药物的能力以及表面功能化的可能性而具有吸引人的特性。在这项工作中,合成了聚乙二醇-ε-己内酯(PEG-PCL)共聚物,并制备了PMs,其负载了一种水解不稳定化合物,该化合物由我们的研究团队先前合成,即3,6-双(2,3,4,6-四-O-乙酰基-β-吡喃葡萄糖基)呫吨酮(XGAc),它对胶质母细胞瘤细胞(U-373 MG)以及健康的脑内皮细胞(hCMEC/D3)均具有有前景的细胞毒性。制备的PMs为具有均匀形态和相似尺寸(平均直径200 nm)的球形颗粒,并且在水悬浮液中稳定。XGAc包封于PMs中(包封率80%)可保护健康内皮细胞免受该化合物的细胞毒性作用,同时对胶质母细胞瘤细胞系U-373 MG保持细胞毒性。我们的研究还表明,制备的PMs可以在肿瘤内pH值下有效释放XGAc。