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Tentori P, Signore G, Camposeo A, Carretta A, Ferri G, Pingue P, Luin S, Pozzi D, Gratton E, Beltram F, Caracciolo G, Cardarelli F. Fluorescence lifetime microscopy unveils the supramolecular organization of liposomal Doxorubicin. Nanoscale 2022; 14:8901-8905. [PMID: 35719059 DOI: 10.1039/d2nr00311b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The supramolecular organization of Doxorubicin (DOX) within the standard Doxoves® liposomal formulation (DOX®) is investigated using visible light and phasor approach to fluorescence lifetime imaging (phasor-FLIM). First, the phasor-FLIM signature of DOX® is resolved into the contribution of three co-existing fluorescent species, each with its characteristic mono-exponential lifetime, namely: crystallized DOX (DOXc, 0.2 ns), free DOX (DOXf, 1.0 ns), and DOX bound to the liposomal membrane (DOXb, 4.5 ns). Then, the exact molar fractions of the three species are determined by combining phasor-FLIM with quantitative absorption/fluorescence spectroscopy on DOXc, DOXf, and DOXb pure standards. The final picture on DOX® comprises most of the drug in the crystallized form (∼98%), with the remaining fractions divided between free (∼1.4%) and membrane-bound drug (∼0.7%). Finally, phasor-FLIM in the presence of a DOX dynamic quencher allows us to suggest that DOXf is both encapsulated and non-encapsulated, and that DOXb is present on both liposome-membrane leaflets. We argue that the present experimental protocol can be applied to the investigation of the supramolecular organization of encapsulated luminescent drugs/molecules all the way from the production phase to their state within living matter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Tentori
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
- Center for Nanotechnology Innovation @NEST, Pisa, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Camposeo
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Piazza S. Silvestro, 12, I-56127, Pisa, Italy
| | | | - Gianmarco Ferri
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
| | - Pasqualantonio Pingue
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Piazza S. Silvestro, 12, I-56127, Pisa, Italy
| | - Stefano Luin
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
| | - Daniela Pozzi
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Enrico Gratton
- Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California, USA
| | - Fabio Beltram
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
- Center for Nanotechnology Innovation @NEST, Pisa, Italy
| | - Giulio Caracciolo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Cardarelli
- Laboratorio NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. E-mail:.
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Piazza S. Silvestro, 12, I-56127, Pisa, Italy
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Quagliarini E, Di Santo R, Pozzi D, Tentori P, Cardarelli F, Caracciolo G. Mechanistic Insights into the Release of Doxorubicin from Graphene Oxide in Cancer Cells. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2020; 10:E1482. [PMID: 32751061 PMCID: PMC7466571 DOI: 10.3390/nano10081482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2020] [Revised: 07/26/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Liposomal doxorubicin (L-DOX) is a popular drug formulation for the treatment of several cancer types (e.g., recurrent ovarian cancer, metastatic breast cancer, multiple myeloma, etc.), but poor nuclear internalization has hampered its clinical applicability so far. Therefore, novel drug-delivery nanosystems are actively researched in cancer chemotherapy. Here we demonstrate that DOX-loaded graphene oxide (GO), GO-DOX, exhibits much higher anticancer efficacy as compared to its L-DOX counterpart if administered to cellular models of breast cancer. Then, by a combination of live-cell confocal imaging and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), we suggest that GO-DOX may realize its superior performances by inducing massive intracellular DOX release (and its subsequent nuclear accumulation) upon binding to the cell plasma membrane. Reported results lay the foundation for future exploitation of these new adducts as high-performance nanochemotherapeutic agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica Quagliarini
- Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy;
| | - Riccardo Di Santo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy;
| | - Daniela Pozzi
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy;
| | - Paolo Tentori
- Center for Nanotechnology Innovation@NEST (CNI@NEST), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127 Pisa, Italy;
- NEST Laboratory, Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127 Pisa, Italy;
| | - Francesco Cardarelli
- NEST Laboratory, Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127 Pisa, Italy;
| | - Giulio Caracciolo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy;
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