A three-drug nanoscale drug delivery system designed for preferential lymphatic uptake for the treatment of metastatic melanoma

Metastatic melanoma has a high mortality rate due to lymphatic progression of the disease. Current treatment is surgery followed by radiation and intravenous chemotherapy. However, drawbacks for current chemotherapeutics lie in the fact that they develop resistance and do not achieve therapeutic concentrations in the lymphatic system. We hypothesize that a three-drug nanoscale drug delivery system, tailored for lymphatic uptake, administered subcutaneously, will have decreased drug resistance and therefore offer better therapeutic outcomes. We prepared and characterized nanoparticles (NPs) with docetaxel, everolimus, and LY294002 in polyethyleneglycol-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-PCL) polymer with different charge distributions by modifying the ratio of anionic and neutral end groups on the PEG block. These NPs are similarly sized (~48nm), with neutral, partially charged, or fully charged surface. The NPs are able to load ~2mg/mL of each drug and are stable for 24h. The NPs are assessed for safety and efficacy in two transgenic metastatic melanoma mouse models. All the NPs were safe in both models based on general appearance, weight changes, death, and blood biochemical analyses. The partially charged NPs are most effective in decreasing the number of melanocytes at both the proximal (sentinel) lymph node (LN) and the distal LN from the injection site. The neutral NPs are efficacious at the proximal LN, while the fully charged NPs have no effect on either LNs. Thus, our data indicates that the NP surface charge and lymphatic efficacy are closely tied to each other and the partially charged NPs have the highest potential in treating metastatic melanoma

Catalytic organometallic anticancer complexes

Organometallic complexes offer chemistry that is not accessible to purely organic molecules and, hence, potentially new mechanisms of drug action. We show here that the presence of both an iodido ligand and a sigma-donor/pi-acceptor phenylazopyridine ligand confers remarkable inertness toward ligand substitution on the half-sandwich "piano-stool" ruthenium arene complexes [(eta(6)-arene)Ru(azpy)I](+) (where arene = p-cymene or biphenyl, and azpy = N,N-dimethylphenyl- or hydroxyphenyl-azopyridine) in aqueous solution. Surprisingly, despite this inertness, these complexes are highly cytotoxic to human ovarian A2780 and human lung A549 cancer cells. Fluorescence-trapping experiments in A549 cells suggest that the cytotoxicity arises from an increase in reactive oxygen species. Redox activity of these azopyridine Ru-II complexes was confirmed by electrochemical measurements. The first one-electron reduction step (half-wave potential -0.2 to -0.4 V) is assignable to reduction of the azo group of the ligand. In contrast, the unbound azopyridine ligands are not readily reduced. intriguingly the ruthenium complex acted as a catalyst in reactions with the tripeptide glutathione (gamma-L-Glu-L-Cys-Gly), a strong reducing agent present in cells at millimolar concentrations; millimolar amounts of glutathione were oxidized to glutathione disulfide in the presence of micromolar ruthenium concentrations. A redox cycle involving glutathione attack on the azo bond of coordinated azopyridine is proposed. Such ligand-based redox reactions provide new concepts for the design of catalytic drugs