ERK-Peptide-Inhibitor-Modified Ferritin Enhanced the Therapeutic Effects of Paclitaxel in Cancer Cells and Spheroids

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.1c00303
• Publication Date: 2021-08-09T19:46:39Z
• Authors: Yixin Dong; Yuanmeng Ma; Xun Li; Fei Wang; Yu Zhang
• Keywords: Nanocarriers; Transferrin receptor; Cell-penetrating peptide

Rational design of a drug delivery system with enhanced therapeutic potency is critical for efficient tumor chemotherapy. Many protein-based platforms have been designed to deliver drugs target sites and improve the efficacy. In this study, paclitaxel (PTX) molecules were encapsulated within an apoferritin nanocage-based modification extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) peptide inhibitor at C-terminus ferritin (HERK). Apoferritin endogenous nano-sized spherical protein which has ability specially bind majority cells via interacting transferrin receptor 1. The ERK can disrupt interaction MEK in mitogen-activated kinase/ERK pathway. By combining targeted effect inhibitory inhibitor, newly fabricated carrier nanoparticle HERK could still be taken up by cells, it displayed higher cell cytotoxicity than parent ferritin. After loading PTX, HERK-PTX favorable anticancer human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 lung carcinoma A549. remarkable on spheroids was also identified. These results indicated that constructed nanocarrier promising multi-functional vehicle enhance therapy.