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All in one theranostic nanoplatform enables efficient anti-tumor peptide delivery for triple-modal imaging guided cancer therapy

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Abstract

Developing a reliable system to efficiently and safely deliver peptide drugs into tumor tissues still remains a great challenge since the instability of peptide drugs and low ability to traverse the cell membrane. Herein, we constructed a multifunctional nanoplatform based on porous europium/gadolinium (Eu/Gd)-doped NaLa(MoO4)2 nanoparticles (NLM NPs) to deliver antitumor peptide of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2-like protein 11 (BIM) for cancer therapy. The porous NLM NPs exhibited inherent photoluminescent, magnetic and X-ray absorbable properties, which enable them for triple-modal bioimaging, including fluorescence, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). This triple-modal bioimaging can contribute to monitoring NLM NPs biodistribution and guiding therapy in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the NLM NPs showed negligible cytotoxicity in vitro and tissue toxicity in vivo. Importantly, NLM NPs could load the antitumor peptide of BIM and efficiently improve the resistance of peptide drugs to proteolysis. The BIM peptide was efficiently delivered into the tumor cells by NLM NPs, which can inhibit the growth and promote the apoptosis of cancer cells in vitro, significantly inhibit the tumor growth in vivo. Notably, NLM-BIM theranostic nanoplatform exhibits low systemic toxicity and fewer side effects in vivo. The NLM NPs can serve as a promising multifunctional peptide delivery nanoplatform for multi-modal bioimaging and cancer therapy.

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Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0208000), the China National Funds for Excellent Young Scientists (No. 21522106), Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province for Craniofacial Precision Medicine Research, College of Stomatology, Xi’an Jiaotong University (No. 2018LHM-KFKT004), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51502237, 51872224, and U1501245). We also appreciate Dr. Dong Su from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory for his kind help in Electron Microscopy (EM) work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province for Craniofacial Precision Medicine Research, College of Stomatology, State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Instrument Analysis Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710000, China

    Xiaoyan Qu, Bohan Ma, Na Li, Hongyang Zhao, Yumeng Xue, Yongping Shao, Ying Chang & Bo Lei

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, Center for Rare Earth and Inorganic Functional Materials, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Zhengqing Liu, Jun Xu & Yaping Du

  3. Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710000, China

    Tian Yang & Xiaozhi Zhang

  4. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 11973, USA

    Na Li

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  1. Xiaoyan Qu
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  2. Zhengqing Liu
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  3. Bohan Ma
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  4. Na Li
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  10. Ying Chang
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  11. Jun Xu
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Correspondence to Bo Lei or Yaping Du.

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Qu, X., Liu, Z., Ma, B. et al. All in one theranostic nanoplatform enables efficient anti-tumor peptide delivery for triple-modal imaging guided cancer therapy. Nano Res. 12, 593–599 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2261-z

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