Fluorinated polymeric micelles to overcome hypoxia and enhance photodynamic cancer therapy. (11th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Qian; Li, Jia-Mi; Yu, Hui; Deng, Kai; Zhou, Wei; Wang, Cai-Xia; Zhang, Yang; Li, Kun-Heng; Zhuo, Ren-Xi; Huang, Shi-Wen
• Is Part Of: Biomaterials science. Volume 6:Number 11(2018)
• Page Start: 3096
• Page End: 3107
• Publication Date: 2018-10-11
• Subjects: Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1039/c8bm00852c
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2047-4830

Abstract

Abstract : Perfluoroalkyl groups-containing polymeric micelles were constructed to transport oxygen, overcome the hypoxia of tumours and enhance photodynamic cancer therapy. Abstract : Photodynamic therapy (PDT) as an alternative choice of cancer treatment method has attracted increasing attention in the past few decades. A sufficient amount of oxygen is essential for the production of singlet oxygen ( 1 O2 ) in successful PDT; however, hypoxia is a typical hallmark of cancer, which is one of the most important limitation factors of PDT. To overcome the hypoxic tumour microenvironment and achieve highly efficient photodynamic cancer therapy, herein, a photosensitizer Ce6-loaded fluorinated polymeric micelle (Ce6-PFOC-PEI-M) was constructed via the self-assembly of an amphiphilic polymer prepared from perfluorooctanoic acid and branched polyethyleneimine (10 kDa). The introduction of perfluoroalkyl groups in the polymeric micelle Ce6-PFOC-PEI-M retained the oxygen-carrying capacity similar to perfluorocarbon, increased the oxygen level and overcame the hypoxia in C6 glioma cells under oxygen-deficient conditions. As a control, Ce6-OC-PEI-M without a perfluoroalkyl group could not increase the oxygen level in C6 glioma cells under the same conditions. With laser irradiation, Ce6-PFOC-PEI-M generated much more reactive oxygen species (ROS) in C6 glioma cells than Ce6-OC-PEI-M, leading to a higher phototoxicity in vitro and photodynamic tumour growth inhibition in vivo than Ce6-OC-PEI-M. Furthermore, there were no differences in the contents of Ce6 in tumour tissue between Ce6-PFOC-PEI-M and Ce6-OC-PEI-M. The higher efficacy of Ce6-PFOC-PEI-M in PDT is ascribed to its oxygen-carrying ability rather than higher content of Ce6 in the tumour. The presented fluorinated polymeric micelle could provide a new platform in the delivery of various photosensitizers and has great potential to improve the efficacy of PDT cancer therapy.