Polyethylenimine modified liposomes as potential carriers for antitumor drug delivery in vitro

The transfection agent polycation polyethylenimine (PEI) has been rarely used to construct liposomes for chemical antitumor drugs. In this study, it was introduced into cisplatin (CDDP) encapsulated neutral liposomes (CDDP-NL) by amphiphilic PEI-cholesterol (PEI-Chol) to investigate its effect on the antitumor activity in A549 cells. The IC50 was 0.65 +/- 0.02, 2.94 +/- 0.21 and 2.03 +/- 0.15 microg/ml for CDDP-cationic liposomes (CDDP-CL), CDDP-NL and free CDDP, respectively. The enhanced anticancer activity was attributed to the addition of PEI-Chol which influenced cellular processing of CDDP. With the help of inhibitors, we found that besides clathrin dependent and actin dependent uptake pathways, caveolae-mediated endocytosis was involved in the internalization of CDDP-CL. Improved internalization of CDDP was observed. Intracellular Pt accumulations were 6.5 times and 3 times of those in CDDP-NL and free CDDP groups, respectively. The differences of intracellular location caused by endocytosis routes and lysosomes escape capacity of PEL-Chol was observed by fluorescence colocalization studies. PEI-Chol also decreased the Pt fraction exported out of cells and extended the cellular Pt retention of CDDP liposomes. In conclusion, cationic modification of liposomes with PEI is a potential and promising way for antitumor drug delivery.