Doxorubicin Detoxification in Healthy Organs Improves Tolerability to High Drug Doses for Enhanced Antitumor Therapy

ACS Nano. 2023 Apr 25;17(8):7705-7720. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c00195. Epub 2023 Apr 6.

Abstract

With its well-documented toxicity, the use of doxorubicin (Dox) for cancer treatment requires trade-offs between safety and effectiveness. This limited use of Dox also hinders its functionality as an immunogenic cell death inducer, thus impeding its usefulness for immunotherapeutic applications. Here, we develop a biomimetic pseudonucleus nanoparticle (BPN-KP) by enclosing GC-rich DNA within erythrocyte membrane modified with a peptide to selectively target healthy tissue. By localizing treatment to organs susceptible to Dox-mediated toxicity, BPN-KP acts as a decoy that prevents the drug from intercalating into the nuclei of healthy cells. This results in significantly increased tolerance to Dox, thereby enabling the delivery of high drug doses into tumor tissue without detectable toxicity. By lessening the leukodepletive effects normally associated with chemotherapy, dramatic immune activation within the tumor microenvironment was also observed after treatment. In three different murine tumor models, high-dose Dox with BPN-KP pretreatment resulted in significantly prolonged survival, particularly when combined with immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Overall, this study demonstrates how targeted detoxification using biomimetic nanotechnology can help to unlock the full potential of traditional chemotherapeutics.

Keywords: cancer therapy; detoxification; doxorubicin; immunotherapy; toxicity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents* / therapeutic use
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Doxorubicin
  • Drug Carriers
  • Drug Delivery Systems / methods
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Nanoparticles*
  • Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Substances

  • Doxorubicin
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Drug Carriers