Synthetic low-density lipoprotein (sLDL) selectively delivers paclitaxel to tumor with low systemic toxicity

Low density lipoprotein (LDL), which is a principal carrier for the delivery of cholesterol, has been used as a great candidate for the delivery of drugs to tumor based on the great requirements for cholesterol of many cancer cells. Mimicking the structure and composition of LDL, we designed a synthetic low-density lipoprotein (sLDL) to encapsulate paclitaxel-alpha linolenic acid (PALA) for tumor therapy. The PALA loaded sLDL (PALA-sLDL) and PALA-loaded microemulsion (PALA-ME, without the binding domain for LDLR) displayed uniform sizes with high drug loading efficiency (> 90%). In vitro studies demonstrated PALA-sLDL exhibited enhanced cellular uptake capacity and better cytotoxicity to LDLR over-expressed U87 MG cells as compared to PALA-ME. The uptake mechanisms of PALA-sLDL were involved in a receptor mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis. Furthermore, the in vivo biodistribution and tumor growth inhibition studies of PALA-sLDL were investigated in xenograft U87 MG tumor-bearing mice. The results showed that PALA-sLDL exhibited higher tumor accumulation than PALA-ME and superior tumor inhibition efficiency (72.1%) compared to Taxol® (51.2%) and PALA-ME (58.8%) but with lower toxicity. These studies suggested that sLDL is potential to be used as a valuable carrier for the selective delivery of anticancer drugs to tumor with low systemic toxicity.