%0 Journal Article
%T Synergistic Enhancement of Antitumor Efficacy by PEGylated Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes Modified with Cell-Penetrating Peptide TAT
%A He Cai
%A Jian Wang
%A Junyu Chen
%A Qianbing Wan
%A Shanshan Hu
%A Tong Wang
%A Xibo Pei
%A Xin Zhang
%J Archive of "Nanoscale Research Letters".
%D 2016
%R 10.1186/s11671-016-1672-6
%X In the present study, a cell-penetrating peptide, the transactivating transcriptional factor (TAT) domain from HIV, was linked to PEGylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to develop a highly effective antitumor drug delivery system. FITC was conjugated on MWCNTs-polyethylene glycol (PEG) and MWCNTs-PEG-TAT to provide fluorescence signal for tracing the cellular uptake of the nanocarrier. After loaded with an anticancer agent, doxorubicin (DOX) via ¦Ð£¿£¿£¿¦Ð stacking interaction, the physicochemical characteristics, release profile and biological evaluation of the obtained nano-sized drug carrier were investigated. The DOX loaded MWCNTs-PEG and MWCNTs-PEG-TAT drug carriers both displayed appropriate particle size, excellent stability, high drug loading, and pH-dependent drug release profile. Nevertheless, compared with DOX-MWCNTs-PEG, DOX-MWCNTs-PEG-TAT showed improved cell internalization, intracellular distribution and potentiated anticancer efficacy due to the TAT-mediated membrane translocation, endosomal escape and nuclear targeting. Furthermore, the therapeutic efficacy of DOX was not compromised after being conjugated with MWCNTs-PEG-TAT and the proposed nanocarrier was also confirmed to have a good biocompatibility. In conclusion, our results suggested that the unique combination of TAT and MWCNTs as a multifunctional drug delivery system might be a powerful tool for improved anticancer drug development
%K TAT peptide
%K Multi-walled carbon nanotubes
%K Doxorubicin
%K Drug delivery
%K Antitumor activity
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5056908/