Issue 42, 2014

Synthesis and self-assembly of a mikto-arm star dual drug amphiphile containing both paclitaxel and camptothecin

Abstract

Self-assembly of anticancer therapeutics into discrete nanostructures provides an innovative way to develop a self-delivering nanomedicine with a high, quantitative drug loading. We report here the synthesis and assembly of a mikto-arm star dual drug amphiphile (DA) containing both a bulky paclitaxel (PTX) and a planar camptothecin (CPT). The two anti-cancer drugs of interest were stochastically conjugated to a β-sheet forming peptide (Sup35) and under physiologically-relevant conditions the dual DA could spontaneously associate into supramolecular filaments with a fixed 41% total drug loading (29% PTX and 12% CPT). Transmission electron microscopy imaging and circular dichroism spectroscopy studies reveal that the bulkiness of the PTX, as well as the π–π interaction preference between the CPT units, has a significant impact on the assembly kinetics, molecular level packing, and nanostructure morphology and stability. We found that the DA containing two PTX units assembled into non-filamentous micelle-like structures, in contrast to the filamentous structures formed by the hetero dual DA and the DA containing two CPTs. The hetero dual DA was found to effectively release the two anticancer agents, exhibiting superior cytotoxicity against PTX-resistant cervical cancer cells. The presented work offers a potential method to generate well-defined filamentous nanostructures and provides the basis for a future combination therapy platform.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis and self-assembly of a mikto-arm star dual drug amphiphile containing both paclitaxel and camptothecin

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jul 2014
Accepted
29 Aug 2014
First published
29 Aug 2014

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014,2, 7316-7326

Synthesis and self-assembly of a mikto-arm star dual drug amphiphile containing both paclitaxel and camptothecin

A. G. Cheetham, P. Zhang, Y.-A. Lin, R. Lin and H. Cui, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 7316 DOI: 10.1039/C4TB01084A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements