Engineering of Amphiphilic Erlotinib Analogue as Novel Nanomedicine for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Mei Cong,1,* Houjun Pang,1,2,* Guangxing Xie,1 Feifei Li,3 Chunxiao Li,3 Hao Sun,3 Shaoyou Yang,1 Weidong Zhao3 1School of Pharmacy, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacy, Dazhou Women and Children’s Hospital, Dazhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Henan Key Laboratory of Immunology and Targeted Drugs, School of Laboratory Medicine, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Weidong Zhao, Henan Key Laboratory of Immunology and Targeted Drugs, School of Laboratory Medicine, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, 453003, People’s Republic of China, Tel [phone], Fax [phone], Email [email protected]: Molecular targeted therapy is one of the most pivotal strategies in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, yet its curative effect is severely compromised by the poor aqueous solubility, low bioavailability and inadequate tumor accumulation of targeted agents. To enhance the efficacy of targeted agents, we demonstrate a novel self-assemble amphiphilic molecule based on erlotinib as an effective nanodrug for anti-cancer treatment.Methods: An amphiphilic molecule composed of hydrophobic erlotinib and hydrophilic biotin block was synthesized and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as well as high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). Then, nanoassemblies of the amphiphilic molecules are formulated by using nanoprecipitation method. Subsequently, the size, morphology, cell uptake, the anticancer activity and in vivo distribution of the newly constructed erlotinib nanodrug were systematically assessed by some methods, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light-scattering (DLS), flow cytometry, in vivo imaging system etc.Results: We developed a novel nanoformulation of erlotinib, which possesses a high drug loading of 45%. With the features of well-defined structure and small size, the obtained nanodrug could be effectively accumulated in tumor sites and rapidly internalized by cancer cells. Finally, the erlotinib-based nanoformulation showed considerably better anticancer activity compared to free erlotinib both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, the nanodrug displayed great tolerability.Conclusion: Combining the advantageous features of both nanotechnology and self-assemble, this novel erlotinib nanomedicine constitutes a promising therapeutic candidate for cancer treatment. This study also underlines the potential use of amphiphilic molecule for improving drug efficacy as well as reducing drug toxicity, which could become a general strategy for the preparation of nanodrugs of active agents.Keywords: erlotinib, amphiphilic molecule, self-assembling, drug self-delivery system, non-small cell lung cancer

Keywords

• erlotinib
• amphiphilic molecule
• self-assembling
• drug self-delivery system
• non-small cell lung cancer