Fabrication and evaluation of chitosan-coated nanostructured lipid carriers for co-delivery of paclitaxel and PD-L1 siRNA.

This study aimed to develop a nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) capable of co-delivering paclitaxel (PTX) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) small interfering RNA (siRNA) to enhance PTX bioavailability and bolster immunity through PD-L1 knockdown. We prepared a PTX-loaded NLC (P-NLC) and coated it with positively charged chitosan (Chi) to create P-NLC-Chi, which was subsequently conjugated to siRNA (P-NLC-Chi-siRNA). The P-NLC-Chi formulation was optimized using the Box-Behnken design. P-NLC-Chi measured 123.8 ± 0.52 nm (zeta potential, 22.71 ± 0.49 mV). By verifying the gel retardation assay and observing changes in the zeta potential, the optimal binding ratio of NLC to PD-L1 siRNA was identified as 50:1. The P-NLC-Chi-siRNA particle size was 181.97 ± 0.67 nm, with a zeta potential of 18.66 ± 0.23 mV. siRNA stability was observed in serum over a 24-h period. Enhanced cytotoxicity and intracellular uptake of the complex were evident in breast cancer cells and breast cancer-resistant cells (MCF-7 and MCF-7/ADR cells, respectively). Evaluation of P-glycoprotein-mediated efflux demonstrated that NLC mitigated drug efflux in MCF-7/ADR cells. Subcutaneous injection of P-NLC-Chi-siRNA into tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mice injected with MCF-7/ADR cells revealed a reduction in tumor size. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicated a significant reduction in PD-L1 mRNA expression levels. Additionally, an in vivo study revealed tumor-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cell responses within the tumor tissue following the injection of P-NLC-Chi-siRNA. Our findings suggest that Chi-coated NLC for the co-delivery of PTX and PD-L1 siRNA has great potential as an innovative delivery system for chemoimmunotherapy.