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Enhancing intratumoral biodistribution and antitumor activity of nab-paclitaxel through combination with a vascular disrupting agent, combretastatin A-4-phosphate

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Abstract

Nanomedicines can generally only reach cancer cells at the edges of tumors, leaving most tumor cells in the central regions untreated. Previous studies showed that treatment with the vascular disrupting agent combretastatin-A4-phosphate (CA4P) can disrupt tumor vasculature, causing vascular shutdown and leading to massive necrosis in the tumor core. In this research, we explored the effect of co-administration of CA4P on the antitumor activity of nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) in Walker 256 tumor-bearing rats. The iodine 131 isotope was used for tracing and biodistribution analysis of nab-paclitaxel uptake. Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was performed to detect the intratumoral concentration of paclitaxel. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to evaluate the effect of tumor treatment. Biodistribution results demonstrated that the tumor accumulations of both nab-paclitaxel and paclitaxel in the 131I-nab-paclitaxel + CA4P group were much higher than those in the 131I-nab-paclitaxel group. Nab-paclitaxel in combination with CA4P inhibited tumor growth significantly more potently compared with the CA4P group, nab-paclitaxel group and PBS group. Our results demonstrate that co-administration of CA4P increased the intratumoral accumulation of nab-paclitaxel and improved its therapeutic effect compared with single treatments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Edanz Group (http://www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81473120).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Meng Gao

  2. Laboratory of Translational Medicine, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210028, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Meng Gao, Dongjian Zhang, Nan Yao, Qiaomei Jin, Cuihua Jiang & Jian Zhang

  3. Laboratory of Translational Medicine, Jiangsu Province Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 100, Shizi Street, Hongshan Road, Nanjing, 210028, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Meng Gao, Dongjian Zhang, Nan Yao, Qiaomei Jin, Cuihua Jiang & Jian Zhang

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Affiliated Nanjing Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 68, Changle Road, Nanjing, 210000, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Wang

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  1. Meng Gao
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  2. Dongjian Zhang
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  7. Feng Wang
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Correspondence to Jian Zhang or Feng Wang.

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The authors declare no potential conflict of interests.

Ethics approval

All animal experiments were carried out in accordance with international ethical guidelines and the National Institutes of Health Guide concerning the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The animal experiments were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee Jiangsu Provincial Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Gao, M., Zhang, D., Yao, N. et al. Enhancing intratumoral biodistribution and antitumor activity of nab-paclitaxel through combination with a vascular disrupting agent, combretastatin A-4-phosphate. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 84, 1187–1194 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-019-03953-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-019-03953-9

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