Co-delivery of doxorubicin and curcumin via cRGD-peptide modified PEG-PLA self-assembly nanomicelles for lung cancer therapy

Lung cancer is the most common malignancy in the world, with a high mortality rate. Nevertheless, therapies to act effectively against lung cancer remain elusive. So far, chemotherapy is still the frontline treatment of lung cancer. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a broad-spectrum anti-tumor drug. However, DOX often has serious side effects and causes multi-drug resistance, which greatly limits its clinical application. In this work, biodegradable methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic acid) (MPEG-PLA) and cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-d-Phe-Lys) (cRGD) polypeptide modified PEG-PLA (cRGD-PEG-PLA) copolymers were used for the co-delivery of curcumin (CUR) and DOX (CUR-DOX/cRGD-M). The particle size of the self-assembled drug-loaded nanomicelle approximately was 27.4 nm and the zeta potential was −2.7 mV. Interestingly, CUR can enhance the uptake of DOX by Lewis lung carcinoma (LL/2) cells. The experimental results in vivo and in vitro showed that CUR-DOX/cRGD-M combination therapy could promote apoptosis of lung cancer cells, and conspicuously inhibit the tumor growth. Our data indicate that CUR-DOX/cRGD-M will be biodegradable and sustainable, which may have potential clinical application value in the treatment of lung cancer.