A dual chemodrug-loaded hyaluronan nanogel for differentiation induction therapy of refractory AML via disrupting
Shilin Xu1, Tao Wang1, Xuechun Hu1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100005, PR China.
Abstract:
Relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (rrAML) is a malignant blood cancer with an extremely poor prognosis, largely ascribed to the drug-resistant leukemia stem cells (LSCs). Most patients suffer from a risk of difficult-to-cure as well as severe systemic toxicity when receiving standard chemotherapies. As hyaluronic acid (HA) is a specific ligand of CD44 highly expressed by LSCs, we had HA self-assembled with cisplatin and daunorubicin to form a dual chemodrug nanogel (HA/Cis/Dau) to afford the targeted therapeutic interventions of rrAML. HA/Cis/Dau displayed an extra therapeutic function of inducing the granulocyte-monocyte differentiation in CD44+ rrAML cells, an rrAML mouse model, and primary blasts isolated from patients with AML. Unlike free drugs directly diffusing and killing rrAML cells, HA/Cis/Dau transported the drugs into lysosomes, causing lysosomal membrane permeabilization, ROS accumulation, and thus a metabolic reprogramming of the rrAML cells. Moreover, HA/Cis/Dau was featured with alleviated side effects, ease of preparation, and cost effectiveness, therefore holding great promises for the targeted treatment of rrAML.
