Complementary Nucleobase Interactions Drive Co-Assembly of Drugs and Nanocarriers for Selective Cancer Chemotherapy
A new concept in cooperative adenine–uracil (A–U) hydrogen bonding interactions between anticancer drugs and nanocarrier complexes was successfully demonstrated by invoking the co-assembly of water soluble, uracil end-capped polyethylene glycol polymer (BU-PEG) upon association with the hydrophobic...
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| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | article |
| Lenguaje: | EN |
| Publicado: |
MDPI AG
2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doaj.org/article/c0bf6f91d9f1485788db78533f58f76e |
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| Sumario: | A new concept in cooperative adenine–uracil (A–U) hydrogen bonding interactions between anticancer drugs and nanocarrier complexes was successfully demonstrated by invoking the co-assembly of water soluble, uracil end-capped polyethylene glycol polymer (BU-PEG) upon association with the hydrophobic drug adenine-modified rhodamine (A-R6G). This concept holds promise as a smart and versatile drug delivery system for the achievement of targeted, more efficient cancer chemotherapy. Due to A–U base pairing between BU-PEG and A-R6G, BU-PEG has high tendency to interact with A-R6G, which leads to the formation of self-assembled A-R6G/BU-PEG nanogels in aqueous solution. The resulting nanogels exhibit a number of unique physical properties, including extremely high A-R6G-loading capacity, well-controlled, pH-triggered A-R6G release behavior, and excellent structural stability in biological media. Importantly, a series of in vitro cellular experiments clearly demonstrated that A-R6G/BU-PEG nanogels improved the selective uptake of A-R6G by cancer cells via endocytosis and promoted the intracellular release of A-R6G to subsequently induce apoptotic cell death, while control rhodamine/BU-PEG nanogels did not exert selective toxicity in cancer or normal cell lines. Overall, these results indicate that cooperative A–U base pairing within nanogels is a critical factor that improves selective drug uptake and effectively promotes apoptotic programmed cell death in cancer cells. |
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