Ruan, L. F.; Chen, J.; Du, C. C.; Lu, H. R.; Zhang, J. Y.; Cai, X. M.; Dou, R.; Lin, W. C.; Chai, Z. F.; Nie, G. J.; Hu, Y. Mitochondrial temperature-responsive drug delivery reverses drug resistance in lung cancer. Bioact. Mater. 2022, 13, 191-199
Reversal of cancer drug resistance remains a critical challenge in chemotherapy. Mitochondria-targeted drug delivery has been suggested to mitigate drug resistance in cancer. To overcome the intrinsic limitations in conventional mitochondrial targeting strategies, we develop mitochondrial temperature-responsive drug delivery to reverse doxorubicin (DOX) resistance in lung cancer. Results demonstrate that the thermoresponsive nanocarrier can prevent DOX efflux and facilitate DOX accumulation and mitochondrial targeting in DOX-resistant tumors. As a consequence, thermoresponsive nanocarrier enhances the cytotoxicity of DOX and reverses the drug resistance in tumor-bearing mice. This work represents the first example of mitochondrial temperature-responsive drug delivery for reversing cancer drug resistance.
Keywords: Drug delivery; Drug resistance; Mitochondrial temperature; Nanomedicines; Thermoresponsive.