Follicle-stimulating hormone peptide-conjugated nanoparticles for targeted shRNA delivery lead to effective gro-α silencing and antitumor activity against ovarian cancer

Drug Delivery

Jun Chen¹  Ming-Xing Zhang²  Shan-Shan Hong²  Meng Zhang²  Yi Yu²  Cong-Jian Xu³  Xiao-Yan Zhang³ 

[1]Departments of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

[2]Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

[3]Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

[4]Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Shanghai Medical School, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

[5]Shanghai Key Laboratory of Female Reproductive Endocrine Related Diseases, Shanghai, Chin

关键词: Ovarian carcinoma;    targeted therapy;    follicle-stimulating hormone;    growth-regulated oncogene α;    short hairpin RNA;   

DOI  :  10.1080/10717544.2018.1440667

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

The distinct hormone molecules and receptors, such as follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) in ovarian cancer, provide opportunities for more precisely targeted therapy. We previously developed FSHR-mediated nanoparticles and found that FSH peptides on the surface of nanoparticles improved the delivery of short interfering RNA (siRNA) into ovarian cancer cells. However, the high toxicity of the nanoparticles and the transient silencing of the siRNA in vivo limited further study. Here, we developed FSH peptide-conjugated nanoparticles with an increased amount of polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafting and encapsulated short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to silence the target gene, growth-regulated oncogene α (gro-α). The nanoparticle complexes exhibited good stability over three weeks. Expression of the target gene, gro-α, was significantly down-regulated by gro-α shRNA-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with FSH peptides (FSH33-G-NP) in FSHR-positive HEY cells. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were also inhibited by FSH33-G-NP. Tumor growth was delayed significantly in the mice treated with FSH33-G-NP. No significant loss of body weight or severe toxic effects were observed in any groups. In conclusion, gro-α shRNA-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with FSH peptides overcame the drawbacks of the in vivo application of RNAi therapeutics and polymer-based nanocarriers and showed safe antitumor efficacy. Our study might contribute to the application of FSHR-based targeted therapy and imaging in cancer.

【 授权许可】

CC BY