Carrier-Enhanced Anticancer Efficacy of Sunitinib-Loaded Green Tea-Based Micellar Nanocomplex beyond Tumor-Targeted Delivery.

Although a few nanomedicines have been approved for clinical use in cancer treatment, that recognizes improved patient safety through targeted delivery, their improved efficacy over conventional drugs has remained marginal. One of the typical drawbacks of nanocarriers for cancer therapy is a low drug-loading capacity that leads to insufficient efficacy and requires an increase in dosage and/or frequency of administration, which in turn increases carrier toxicity. In contrast, elevating drug-loading would cause the risk of nanocarrier instability, resulting in low efficacy and off-target toxicity. This intractable drug-to-carrier ratio has imposed constraints on the design and development of nanocarriers. However, if the nanocarrier has intrinsic therapeutic effects, the efficacy would be synergistically augmented with less concern for the drug-to-carrier ratio. Sunitinib-loaded micellar nanocomplex (SU-MNC) was formed using poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (PEG-EGCG) as such a carrier. SU-MNC specifically inhibited the vascular endothelial growth factor-induced proliferation of endothelial cells, exhibiting minimal cytotoxicity to normal renal cells. SU-MNC showed enhanced anticancer effects and less toxicity than SU administered orally/intravenously on human renal cell carcinoma-xenografted mice, demonstrating more efficient effects on anti-angiogenesis, apoptosis induction, and proliferation inhibition against tumors. In comparison, a conventional nanocarrier, SU-loaded polymeric micelle (SU-PM) comprised of PEG-b-poly(lactic acid) (PEG-PLA) copolymer, only reduced toxicity with no elevated efficacy, despite comparable drug-loading and tumor-targeting efficiency to SU-MNC. Improved efficacy of SU-MNC was ascribed to the carrier-drug synergies with the high-performance carrier of PEG-EGCG besides tumor-targeted delivery.

Highly Augmented Drug Loading and Stability of Micellar Nanocomplexes Composed of Doxorubicin and Poly(ethylene glycol)-Green Tea Catechin Conjugate for Cancer Therapy.

Low drug loading and instability in blood circulation are two key challenges that impede the successful clinical translation of nanomedicine, as they result in only marginal therapeutic efficacy and toxic side effects associated with premature drug leakage, respectively. Herein, highly stable and ultrahigh drug loading micellar nanocomplexes (MNCs) based on the self-assembly of the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) and a poly(ethylene glycol)-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) conjugate are developed. The formation of these MNCs is facilitated by strong favorable intermolecular interactions between the structurally similar aromatic EGCG and DOX molecules, which impart exceptionally high drug-loading capability of up to 88% and excellent thermodynamic and kinetic stability. Unlike two clinical formulations of DOX-free DOX and liposomal DOX, which are not effective below their lethal dosages, these DOX-loaded MNCs demonstrate significant tumor growth inhibition in vivo on a human liver cancer xenograft mouse model with minimal unwanted toxicity. Overall, these MNCs can represent a safe and effective strategy to deliver DOX for cancer therapy.

Self-assembled micellar nanocomplexes comprising green tea catechin derivatives and protein drugs for cancer therapy.

When designing drug carriers, the drug-to-carrier ratio is an important consideration, because the use of high quantities of carriers can result in toxicity as a consequence of poor metabolism and elimination of the carriers. However, these issues would be of less concern if both the drug and carrier had therapeutic effects. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), a major ingredient of green tea, has been shown, for example, to possess anticancer effects, anti-HIV effects, neuroprotective effects and DNA-protective effects. Here, we show that sequential self-assembly of the EGCG derivative with anticancer proteins leads to the formation of stable micellar nanocomplexes, which have greater anticancer effects in vitro and in vivo than the free protein. The micellar nanocomplex is obtained by complexation of oligomerized EGCG with the anticancer protein Herceptin to form the core, followed by complexation of poly(ethylene glycol)-EGCG to form the shell. When injected into mice, the Herceptin-loaded micellar nanocomplex demonstrates better tumour selectivity and growth reduction, as well as longer blood half-life, than free Herceptin.