ブラウン大学のエンジニアが開発した新薬物送達システム、がん治療改善の可能性(New drug delivery system developed by Brown engineers has potential to improve cancer treatments)

2023-09-20 ブラウン大学

<関連情報>

• https://www.brown.edu/news/2023-09-20/hydrogel
• https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.3c09733

pH調節およびドキソルビシン放出注射用キトサン-ポリ(エチレングリコール)ヒドロゲルを用いた化学療法効果の向上 Increasing Chemotherapeutic Efficacy Using pH-Modulating and Doxorubicin-Releasing Injectable Chitosan-Poly(ethylene glycol) Hydrogels

Zahra Ahmed, Kevin LoGiudice, Gavin Mays, Angelina Schorr, Rachel Rowey, Haisong Yang, Shruti Trivedi, and Vikas Srivastava
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces  Published:September 20, 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c09733

Abstract

Modulation of pH is crucial to maintaining the chemical homeostasis of biological environments. The irregular metabolic pathways exhibited by cancer cells result in the production of acidic byproducts that are excreted and accumulate in the extracellular tumor microenvironment, reducing the pH. As a consequence of the lower pH in tumors, cancer cells increase the expression of metastatic phenotypes and chemotherapeutic resistance. A significant limitation in current cancer therapies is the inability to locally deliver chemotherapeutics, leading to significant damage to healthy cells in systemic administration. To overcome these challenges, we present an injectable chitosan-poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel that is dual-loaded with doxorubicin and sodium bicarbonate providing alkaline buffering of extracellular acidity and simultaneous chemotherapeutic delivery to increase chemotherapeutic efficacy. We conducted in vitro studies of weak base chemotherapeutic and alkaline buffer release from the hydrogel. The release of doxorubicin from hydrogels increased in a low-pH environment and was dependent on the encapsulated sodium bicarbonate concentration. We investigated the influence of pH on the doxorubicin efficacy and viability of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. The results show a 2- to 3-fold increase in IC₅₀ values from neutral pH to low pH, showing decreased cancer cell viability at neutral pH as compared to acidic pH. The IC₅₀ results were shown to correlate with a decrease in intracellular uptake of doxorubicin at low pH. The proposed hydrogels were confirmed to be nontoxic to healthy MCF-10A mammary epithelial cells. Rheological studies were performed to verify that the dual-loaded hydrogels were injectable. The mechanical and release properties of the hydrogels were maintained after extended storage. The chemotherapeutic activity of doxorubicin was evaluated in the presence of the proposed pH-regulating hydrogels. The findings suggest a promising nontoxic, biodegradable hydrogel buffer delivery system that can achieve two simultaneous important goals of local acidosis neutralization and chemotherapeutic release.