FOLFIRINOX-loaded immunoliposome-like particles for localized pancreatic cancer treatment

FOLFIRINOX therapy, a combination of oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, irinotecan, and leucovorin, is one of the most applied treatment schemes for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. However, because this form of treatment causes significant side effects, it has become important to reduce the dose of the drug administered to the patients and target the drug to the tumor tissue. This study presents the liposomal type of this therapy scheme to demonstrate its applicability to localized chemotherapy strategies. Briefly, lipid-based liposome-like particles have been synthesized and physically, chemically, and thermally characterized. Following the decoration of the liposome-like particles with anti-Mucin-4, a malignancy marker for pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the encapsulation efficiency of the FOLFIRINOX components and release profile of the FOLFIRINOX-loaded liposome-like particles have been analyzed using the high-pressure liquid chromatography. Cytotoxicity analyses and cellular encapsulation studies of Mucin-4-targeted liposome-like particles were performed in HPAF-II (ascites-derived cell, Mucin-4(+)) and PANC-I (tumor-derived cell, Mucin-4(−)) cells. The results have shown that Mucin-4-targeted liposome-like particles enter HPAF-II cells more selectively than PANC-I cells. Besides, after the FOLFIRINOX application, a significant difference was observed between the viability of HPAF-II and PANC-I cells at 100-fold dilution. In genotoxicity and apoptosis analysis, it was found that drug-loaded liposome-like particles caused DNA damage in cancer cells with the increase in concentration. The study suggests that Mucin-4-targeted liposome-like particles can provide superior patient welfare and a promising treatment model for pancreatic adenocarcinoma and can be used in localized chemotherapy applications due to their long-term stability, nanoscale size, and target-driven nature.