Amplification of Tumor Oxidative Stresses with Liposomal Fenton Catalyst and Glutathione Inhibitor for Enhanced Cancer Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy

Amplification of intracellular oxidative stress has been found to be an effective strategy to induce cancer cell death. To this end, we prepare a unique type of ultrasmall gallic acid-ferrous (GA-Fe(II)) nanocomplexes as the catalyst of Fenton reaction to enable persistent conversion of H2O2 to highly cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH). Then, both GA-Fe(II) and L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of glutathione (GSH) synthesis, are coencapsulated within a stealth liposomal nanocarrier. Interestingly, the obtained BSO/GA-Fe(II)@liposome is able to efficiently amplify intracellular oxidative stress via increasing center dot OH generation and reducing GSH biosynthesis. After chelating with Tc-99m(4+) radioisotope, such BSO/GA-Fe(II)@ liposome could be tracked under in vivo single-photon-emission-computed-tomography (SPECT) imaging, which illustrates the time-dependent tumor homing of such liposomal nanoparticles after intravenous injection. With GA-Fe(II)-mediated center dot OH production and BSO-mediated GSH depletion, treatment with such BSO/GA-Fe(II)@liposome would lead to dramatically enhanced intratumoral oxidative stresses, which then result in remarkably improved therapeutic efficacies of concurrently applied chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This work thus presents the concise fabrication of biocompatible BSO/GA-Fe(II)@ liposome as an effective adjuvant nanomedicine to promote clinically used conventional cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy, by greatly amplifying the intratumoral oxidative stress.