Transformative hyaluronic acid-based active targeting supramolecular nanoplatform improves long circulation and enhances cellular uptake in cancer therapy

Abstract

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural ligand of tumor-targeted drug delivery systems (DDS) due to the relevant CD44 receptor overexpressed on tumor cell membranes. However, other HA receptors (HARE and LYVE-1) are also overexpressing in the reticuloendothelial system (RES). Therefore, polyethylene glycol (PEG) modification of HA-based DDS is necessary to reduce RES capture. Unfortunately, pegylation remarkably inhibits tumor cellular uptake and endosomal escapement, significantly compromising the in vivo antitumor efficacy. Herein, we developed a Dox-loaded HA-based transformable supramolecular nanoplatform (Dox/HCVBP) to overcome this dilemma. Dox/HCVBP contains a tumor extracellular acidity-sensitive detachable PEG shell achieved by a benzoic imine linkage. The in vitro and in vivo investigations further demonstrated that Dox/HCVBP could be in a ''stealth'' state at blood stream for a long circulation time due to the buried HA ligands and the minimized nonspecific interaction by PEG shell. However, it could transform into a ''recognition'' state under the tumor acidic microenvironment for efficient tumor cellular uptake due to the direct exposure of active targeting ligand HA following PEG shell detachment. Such a transformative concept provides a promising strategy to resolve the dilemma of natural ligand-based DDS with conflicting two processes of tumor cellular uptake and in vivo nonspecific biodistribution. KEY WORDS: Hyaluronic acid, Benzoic imine linkage, Active-targeting, Cancer therapy, Natural ligand, Supramolecular nanoplat-form, Transformative nanoparti-cles, PEG dilemma