Faculty Articles

Multifunctional Polymeric Micelles Co-loaded with Anti-Survivin siRNA and Paclitaxel Overcome Drug Resistance in an Animal Model of Ovarian Cancer.

Publication Title

Molecular cancer therapeutics

Publication Date

4-1-2015

Keywords

Animals, Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic, Apoptosis, Cell Line, Tumor, Disease Models, Animal, Down-Regulation, Drug Delivery Systems, Drug Resistance, Neoplasm, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Humans, Immunohistochemistry, Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins, Mice, Micelles, Microtubules, Ovarian Neoplasms, Paclitaxel, RNA, Messenger, RNA, Small Interfering, Survivin, Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is a dreadful disease estimated to be the second most common gynecologic malignancy worldwide. Its current therapy, based on cytoreductive surgery followed by the combination of platinum and taxanes, is frequently complicated by the onset of multidrug resistance (MDR). The discovery that survivin, a small antiapoptotic protein, is involved in chemoresistance provided a new prospect to overcome MDR in cancer, because siRNA could be used to inhibit the expression of survivin in cancer cells. With this in mind, we have developed self-assembly polymeric micelles (PM) able to efficiently co-load an anti-survivin siRNA and a chemotherapeutic agent, such as paclitaxel (PXL; survivin siRNA/PXL PM). Previously, we have successfully demonstrated that the downregulation of survivin by using siRNA-containing PM strongly sensitizes different cancer cells to paclitaxel. Here, we have evaluated the applicability of the developed multifunctional PM in vivo. Changes in survivin expression, therapeutic efficacy, and biologic effects of the nanopreparation were investigated in an animal model of paclitaxel-resistant ovarian cancer. The results obtained in mice xenografed with SKOV3-tr revealed a significant downregulation of survivin expression in tumor tissues together with a potent anticancer activity of survivin siRNA/PXL PM, while the tumors remained unaffected with the same quantity of free paclitaxel. These promising results introduce a novel type of nontoxic and easy-to-obtain nanodevice for the combined therapy of siRNA and anticancer agents in the treatment of chemoresistant tumors.

Volume

14

Issue

4

First Page

1075

Last Page

1084

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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