Cyclam-Modified PEI for Combined VEGF siRNA Silencing and CXCR4 Inhibition To Treat Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Cyclam-Modified PEI for Combined VEGF siRNA Silencing and CXCR4 Inhibition To Treat Metastatic Breast Cancer. Biomacromolecules. 2018 Jan 19;: Authors: Zhou Y, Yu F, Zhang F, Chen G, Wang K, Sun M, Li J, Oupický D Abstract Chemokine receptor CXCR4 plays an important role in cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Recent findings suggest that anti-VEGF therapies upregulate CXCR4 expression, which contributes to resistance to antiangiogenic therapies. Here, we report the development of novel derivatives of polyethylenimine (PEI) that effectively inhibit CXCR4 while delivering anti-VEGF siRNA. PEI was alkylated with different amounts of a CXCR4-binding cyclam derivative to prepare PEI-C. Modification with the cyclam derivatives resulted in a considerable decrease in cytotoxicity when compared with unmodified PEI. All the PEI-C showed significant CXCR4 antagonism and the ability to inhibit cancer cell invasion. Polyplexes of PEI-C prepared with siVEGF showed effective silencing of the VEGF expression in vitro. In vivo testing in a syngeneic breast cancer model showed promising antitumor and antimetastatic activity of the PEI-C/siVEGF polyplexes. Our data demonstrate the feasibility of using PEI-C as a carrier for simultaneous VEGF silencing and CXCR4 inhibition for enhanced antiangiogenic cancer therapies. PMID: 29350899 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Biomacromolecules - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Biomacromolecules Source Type: research