Herceptin-conjugated magnetic polystyrene-Agsbox nanoparticles as a theranostic agent for breast cancer

Nanomedicine-Based Drug-Targeting in Breast Cancer: Pharmacokinetics, Clinical Progress, and Challenges

Breast cancer (BC) is a malignant neoplasm that begins in the breast tissue. After skin cancer, BC is the second most common type of cancer in women. At the end of 2040, the number of newly diagnosed BC cases is projected to increase by over 40%, reaching approximately 3 million worldwide annually. The hormonal and chemotherapeutic approaches based on conventional formulations have inappropriate therapeutic effects and suboptimal pharmacokinetic responses with nonspecific targeting actions. To overcome such issues, the use of nanomedicines, including liposomes, nanoparticles, micelles, hybrid nanoparticles, etc., has gained wider attention in the treatment of BC. Smaller dimensional nanomedicine (especially 50-200 nm) exhibited improved in vivo effectiveness, such as better tissue penetration and more effective tumor suppression through enhanced retention and permeation, as well as active targeting of the drug. Additionally, nanotechnology, which further extended and developed theranostic nanomedicine by incorporating diagnostic and imaging agents in one platform, has been applied to BC. Furthermore, hybrid and theranostic nanomedicine has also been explored for gene delivery as anticancer therapeutics in BC. Moreover, the nanocarriers' size, shape, surface charge, chemical compositions, and surface area play an important role in the nanocarriers' stability, cellular absorption, cytotoxicity, cellular uptake, and toxicity. Additionally, nanomedicine clinical translation for managing BC remains a slow process. However, a few cases are being used clinically, and their progress with the current challenges is addressed in this Review. Therefore, this Review extensively discusses recent advancements in nanomedicine and its clinical challenges in BC.

Fundamental concepts of protein therapeutics and spacing in oncology: an updated comprehensive review

Current treatment regimens in cancer cases cause significant side effects and cannot effectively eradicate the advanced disease. Hence, much effort has been expended over the past years to understand how cancer grows and responds to therapies. Meanwhile, proteins as a type of biopolymers have been under commercial development for over three decades and have been proven to improve the healthcare system as effective medicines for treating many types of progressive disease, such as cancer. Following approving the first recombinant protein therapeutics by FDA (Humulin), there have been a revolution for drawing attention toward protein-based therapeutics (PTs). Since then, the ability to tailor proteins with ideal pharmacokinetics has provided the pharmaceutical industry with an important noble path to discuss the clinical potential of proteins in oncology research. Unlike traditional chemotherapy molecules, PTs actively target cancerous cells by binding to their surface receptors and the other biomarkers particularly associated with tumorous or healthy tissue. This review analyzes the potential and limitations of protein therapeutics (PTs) in the treatment of cancer as well as highlighting the evolving strategies by addressing all possible factors, including pharmacology profile and targeted therapy approaches. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of PTs in oncology, including their pharmacology profile, targeted therapy approaches, and prospects. The reviewed data show that several current and future challenges remain to make PTs a promising and effective anticancer drug, such as safety, immunogenicity, protein stability/degradation, and protein-adjuvant interactions.

Hyaluronidase responsive second near-infrared fluorescent nanocomplex for combined HER2 blockade and chemotherapy of HER2+ breast cancer

The human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-positive (HER2+) type is aggressive and has poor prognosis. Although anti-HER2 therapy alone or in combination with other treatment regimens showed significant improvement in survival outcomes, breast cancer patients are still suffering from tumor relapse and severe dose-limiting side effects. Thus, there is still an unmet challenge to develop effective therapeutic agents for HER2+ breast cancer treatment with minimized side effects. Herein, we produced a stimuli-responsive and tumor-targeted hyaluronic acid (HA) nanocomplex that combined HER2 blockade and chemotherapy for effective HER2+ breast cancer therapy. A hydrophobic NIR-II dye, IR1048, was covalently linked with HA to form a spherical HA-IR1048 nanoparticle (HINP), with Herceptin conjugated on the surface and paclitaxel (PTX) encapsulated inside. The fluorescent signals from the yielding Her-HINP/PTX are quenched originally, but a strong NIR-II signal is generated when HINP is degraded by the hyaluronidase that is overexpressed in breast tumors, thus allowing the tracking and visualization of Herceptin and PTX accumulation. Her-HINP/PTX peaked in HER2+ tumors at 24 h post injection as imaged by NIR-II fluorescent imaging. A significantly improved tumor growth inhibition effect was observed after five systemic treatments compared to single PTX (3.71 ± 0.41 times) or Herceptin (5.98 ± 0.51 times) treatment in a HER2-overexpressed breast cancer mouse model with prolonged survival. Collectively, the designed Her-HINP/PTX presents a new hyaluronidase-responsive and HER2 blockade nanoformulation that can visualize the accumulation of nanocomplexes and release drugs inside tumors for combined HER2+ breast cancer therapy with a great promise for translational study. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The high expressions of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in breast tumors make this subtype of cancer aggressive. Currently, chemotherapy combined with a HER2 antibody, Herceptin, is a preferred approach for HER2-positive breast cancer therapy. However, these breast cancer patients still suffer from tumor relapse and severe side effects because various therapeutic agents have inherent different biodistributions, resulting in insufficient treatment effects and unfavorable normal organ uptake of these therapeutic agents. Herein, we produced a nanocomplex carrying both Herceptin and chemotherapy drug to simultaneously deliver two drugs into tumors for efficient HER2+ tumor treatment with minimized side effects, providing new insights for designing a combined therapy strategy.

NCAPH promotes proliferation as well as motility of breast cancer cells by activating the PI3K/AKT pathway

Objective

This study aimed to assess the expression of NCAPH in human breast cancer, and to investigate its effects on breast cancer cells.

Methods

Bioinformation analysis was performed to analyze the expression of NCAPH in human breast cancer tissues and normal tissues in TCGA database. qPCR and Immunoblot assays were performed to clarify the expression of NCAPH in breast cancer tissues and cell lines, respectively. CCK-8, colony formation, FCM, transwell, and immunoblot assays were performed to reveal the effects of NCAPH on breast cancer proliferation, cell cycle, motility and EMT of breast cancer cells. Additionally, immunoblot assays were performed to investigate the effects of NCAPH on the PI3K/AKT pathway in breast cancer.

Results

We found that NCAPH was highly expressed in human breast cancer cell lines. The depletion of NCAPH suppressed the viability of breast cancer cells. Further, we noticed that its downregulation restrained breast cancer cell migration as well as invasion, and the EMT process. Mechanically, we noticed that NCAPH mediated the PI3K/AKT pathway, and therefore contributed to breast cancer progression.

Conclusion

In summary, NCAPH has the potential to serve as a breast cancer target.