Peptide Dendrimer-Doxorubicin Conjugate-Based Nanoparticles as an Enzyme-Responsive Drug Delivery System for Cancer Therapy

Peptide dendrimers have shown promise as an attractive platform for drug delivery. In this study, mPEGylated peptide dendrimer-doxorubicin (dendrimer-DOX) conjugate-based nanoparticle is prepared and characterized as an enzyme-responsive drug delivery vehicle. The drug DOX is conjugated to the periphery of dendrimer via an enzyme-responsive tetra-peptide linker Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly (GFLG). The dendrimer-DOX conjugate can self-assemble into nanoparticle, which is confirmed by dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy studies. At equal dose, mPEGylated dendrimer-DOX conjugate-based nanoparticle results in significantly high antitumor activity, and induces apoptosis on the 4T1 breast tumor model due to the evidences from tumor growth curves, an immunohistochemical analysis, and a histological assessment. The in vivo toxicity evaluation demonstrates that nanoparticle substantially avoids DOX-related toxicities and presents good biosafety without obvious side effects to normal organs of both tumor-bearing and healthy mice as measured by body weight shift, blood routine test, and a histological analysis. Thus, the mPEGylated peptide dendrimer-DOX conjugate-based nanoparticle may be a potential nanoscale drug delivery vehicle for the breast cancer therapy.