Issue 6, 2021

Biodegradable self-assembly micelles significantly enhanced the solubility, biological stability and in vivo antitumor efficacy of Hexylselen

Abstract

Glutaminolysis inhibitors have shown early promise in cancer therapeutics. Specifically, kidney-type glutaminase (KGA) has been a long-standing anti-tumor drug target; KGA allosteric inhibitors have attracted great attention due to their superior enzyme specificity and good drug safety profiles. However, the main issue with allosteric inhibitors—including BPTES, CB-839, and the recently developed KGA allosteric and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) dual inhibitor, Hexylselen (CPD-3B)—is their low solubility; it leads to limited in vivo efficacy. To optimize their formulation, various delivery carriers were screened in the present study. Soluplus® (SOL), an amphiphilic graft polymer, showed an interesting structure–solubility/activity relationship with Selen molecules containing different middle chain sizes. Among these molecules, the long chain molecule CPD-3B showed 3000-fold increased solubility with SOL, forming well-dispersed and stable micelles 60–80 nm in size. Moreover, CPD-3B@SOL micelles exhibited good metabolic stability in both blood and liver microsomes. These advantages significantly enhanced the bioavailability and in vivo antitumor efficacy of CPD-3B@SOL micelles in the H22 hepatocarcinoma xenograft mouse model. Thus, the current study provided a practical delivery system for allosteric inhibitors of glutaminase, which is one of the bottlenecks of targeting tumor glutaminolysis.

Graphical abstract: Biodegradable self-assembly micelles significantly enhanced the solubility, biological stability and in vivo antitumor efficacy of Hexylselen

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Apr 2021
Accepted
27 Jul 2021
First published
21 Aug 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Chem. Biol., 2021,2, 1669-1681

Biodegradable self-assembly micelles significantly enhanced the solubility, biological stability and in vivo antitumor efficacy of Hexylselen

J. Fang, Z. Chen, J. Song, J. Li, Y. Han, W. Hou, W. Wang and B. H. Ruan, RSC Chem. Biol., 2021, 2, 1669 DOI: 10.1039/D1CB00089F

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