Tailor-Made Dual pH-Sensitive Polymer–Doxorubicin Nanoparticles for Efficient Anticancer Drug Delivery

TLDR

Efficient delivery of therapeutics into tumor cells to increase intracellular drug concentration is a major challenge for cancer therapy due to drug resistance and inefficient cellular uptake. Herein, we have designed a tailor‑made dual pH‑sensitive polymer‑drug conjugate nanoparticulate system to overcome the challenges. The nanoparticle reverses its surface charge from negative to positive at tumor extracellular pH (~6.8) to facilitate cell internalization, and the acidic subcellular compartments (~5.0) trigger doxorubicin release. The dual pH‑sensitive nanoparticle showed enhanced cytotoxicity in drug‑resistant cancer stem cells, indicating great potential for cancer therapy.

Abstract

Efficient delivery of therapeutics into tumor cells to increase the intracellular drug concentration is a major challenge for cancer therapy due to drug resistance and inefficient cellular uptake. Herein, we have designed a tailor-made dual pH-sensitive polymer-drug conjugate nanoparticulate system to overcome the challenges. The nanoparticle is capable of reversing its surface charge from negative to positive at tumor extracellular pH (∼6.8) to facilitate cell internalization. Subsequently, the significantly increased acidity in subcellular compartments such as the endosome (∼5.0) further promotes doxorubicin release from the endocytosed drug carriers. This dual pH-sensitive nanoparticle has showed enhanced cytotoxicity in drug-resistant cancer stem cells, indicating its great potential for cancer therapy.