American Chemical Society, ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, 8(1), p. 646-655, 2015
DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.5b00025
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Herein we report on the unexpected cancer cell selective cytotoxicities of the liposomal formulations of aspartic and glutamic acid backbone-based four novel lipids with endosomal pH-sensitive head-groups and aliphatic n-hexadecyl & n-octadecyl hydrophobic tails. Surprisingly, although the formulations killed cancer cells efficiently, they were significantly less cytotoxic in non-cancerous healthy cells. Importantly, intratumoral administration of the liposomal formulations efficiently inhibited growth of melanoma in a syngeneic C57BL/6J mouse tumor model. Western Blotting experiments with the lysates of liposomes treated cancer cells revealed that liposomes of lipids 1−4 induce apoptosis selectively in cancer cells presumably by releasing cytochrome c from depolarized mitochondria and subsequent activation of caspases 3 & 9, upregulation of Bax and down regulation of Bcl-2. In summary, the present report describes for the first time tumor growth inhibition properties of the liposomal formulations of endosomal pH-sensitive histidinylated cationic lipids under both in vitro and systemic settings. KEYWORDS: endosomal pH-sensitive lipids, histidinylated cationic amphiphiles, cancer cell selective cytoxicity, anti-cancer liposomes, mitochondrial membrane depolarization