Transferrin/folate dual-targeting Pluronic F127/poly(lactic acid) polymersomes for effective anticancer drug delivery

Abstract

A novel dual-targeting Pluronic/poly(lactic acid) polymersome containing transferrin and folic acid ligands (Tf/FA-F127-PLA) has been designed to study its application in the targeted drug delivery system. Both biotin and folic acid conjugated Biotin/FA-F127-PLA polymersomes (Ps) were prepared as the precursor. The dual-targeting behaviors of Tf/FA-F127-PLA over C6 glioma cells were then fulfilled through connecting the precursor with biotinylated transferrin by using a three-step biotin-avidin technique. Paclitaxel (PTX) was loaded successfully into Biotin/FA-F127-PLA and showed a burst release followed by a slow-release process in vitro. It was also obtained that Tf/FA-F127-PLA had higher cytotoxicity and cellular uptake amount than non-targeted and single-targeted Ps did. These results could be because more PTX-loaded Tf/FA-F127-PLA Ps entered C6 cells through both FA-folate receptor (FR) and Tf-transferrin receptor (TfR) specific affinity and thus possessed the better anti-tumor ability. It was further proved that the uptake of Ps by C6 cells was through the endocytosis related to clathrin, caveolae, lysosome, etc. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the uptake of dual-targeting Tf/FA-F127-PLA Ps by C6 cells was related to the endocytosis mediated by both FR and TfR. These findings indicated that dual-targeting Tf/FA-F127-PLA Ps could be a potential carrier in targeted drug delivery systems.

Keywords:

• Dual-targeting
• transferrin
• folic acid
• polymersomes
• antitumor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work is supported by Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (20212ACB206003), and the Graduate Innovation Special Fund of Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University (No. YC2020-X11).