Earticle

초록

영어

Nanomedicine constitutes the emerging field of medical applications for nanotechnology such as nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems. This technology may hold exceptional potential for novel therapeutic approaches to liver diseases. Activ ation of apoptosis pathway is a key mechanism by which cytotoxic drugs kill tumor cells. Delivering drugs sele ctively to cancer cells but not to nearby normal cells is a major obstacle in drug therapy. In this study, lithoch olic acid (LCA), a potent anti-cancer drug, is converted to two forms of poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) conjugates, viz., PEG-LCA (PL) and lactobionic acid (LBA) conjugated PEG-LCA (LPL). The latter form contains a galacto se ligand in LBA to target the hepatocytes. Both forms are self-assembled to form nanoparticle formulation, and they have high potency than LCA to kill HepG2 cancer cells, sparing normal LO2 cells. Besides, LPL has high specificity to mouse liver cells in vivo after intravenous (IV) injection. Western blot results confirm that the cel l death is occurred through apoptosis induced by LPL nanoparticles. In conclusion, the induction of apoptosis a nd cell death is much more efficient with LPL nanoparticles than LCA molecules as well as good hepatocyte specificity in vitro and in vivo.

목차

Abstract
 1. Introduction
 2. Experimental Section
  Chemicals and reagents
  Synthesis of LPL
  NMR and FTIR
  Physicochemical characterization of LPL nanoparticles
  Cytotoxicity assay
  Western blot analysis
  Apoptosis detection by Annexin V-FITC analysis
  Ligand specificity of LPL in vivo
  Statistical analyses
 3. Results and Discussion
  3.1. Preparation and characterization of LPL and PL
  3.2. Stability of LPL and PL nanoparticles
  3.2. Toxicity of LPL and PL nanoparticles
  3.3. Ligand specificity of LPL with liver cells in vivo
  3.4. Mechanism of apoptosis induced by LPL nanoparticles
 4. Conclusions

저자

• Nomundelger Gankhuyag [ PhD candidate, Laboratory of Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University ]

참고문헌