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Hypoxia-activatable nano-prodrug for fluorescently tracking drug release in mice

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Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the commonly used methods to treat various types of cancers in clinic by virtue of its high efficiency and universality. However, strong side effects and low concentration of conventional drugs at the tumor site have always been important factors that plague the chemotherapy effects of patients, further precluding their practical applications. Thereof, to solve the above dilemma, by integration of anticancer drug (nitrogen mustard, NM) into an NIR fluorophore (a dicyanoisophorone derivative), an intelligent prodrug NIR-NM was developed via molecular engineering strategy. Prodrug NIR-NM stimulated in hypoxia condition exhibits significantly higher toxicity to cancer cells than normal cells, essentially reducing the collateral damage to healthy cells and tissues of nitrogen mustard. More importantly, the nanoparticle prodrug FA-lip@NIR-NM showed the advantages of the high accumulation of drug at tumor site and long-circulation capacity in vivo, which endowed it the ability to track the release of the active chemotherapeutic drug and further treat solid tumors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Creative Research Initiative programs of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the Korean Government (MSIP) (2012R1A3A2048814), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21421005, 21808028) and the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning United Fund (U1608222, U1908202).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Haidong Li, Qichao Yao, Haoying Ge, Chao Shi, Ning Xu, Feng Xu, Wen Sun, Jianjun Du, Jiangli Fan & Xiaojun Peng

  2. Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 03760, Korea

    Haidong Li, Jeewon Chung & Juyoung Yoon

  3. Ningbo Institute of Dalian University of Technology, Ningbo, 315016, China

    Qichao Yao, Jiangli Fan & Xiaojun Peng

  4. School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Zhongji Pu & Jingyun Wang

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  1. Haidong Li
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  2. Qichao Yao
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  3. Zhongji Pu
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  4. Jeewon Chung
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  7. Ning Xu
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  8. Feng Xu
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  9. Wen Sun
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  10. Jianjun Du
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  11. Jiangli Fan
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  14. Xiaojun Peng
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Juyoung Yoon or Xiaojun Peng.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Li, H., Yao, Q., Pu, Z. et al. Hypoxia-activatable nano-prodrug for fluorescently tracking drug release in mice. Sci. China Chem. 64, 499–508 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9880-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9880-7

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