1. Academic Validation
  2. α1-Acid Glycoprotein Has the Potential to Serve as a Biomimetic Drug Delivery Carrier for Anticancer Agents

α1-Acid Glycoprotein Has the Potential to Serve as a Biomimetic Drug Delivery Carrier for Anticancer Agents

  • J Pharm Sci. 2019 Nov;108(11):3592-3598. doi: 10.1016/j.xphs.2019.07.002.
Kotaro Matsusaka 1 Yu Ishima 2 Hitoshi Maeda 1 Ryo Kinoshita 1 Shota Ichimizu 1 Kazuaki Taguchi 3 Victor Tuan Giam Chuang 4 Koji Nishi 5 Keishi Yamasaki 5 Masaki Otagiri 5 Hiroshi Watanabe 1 Toru Maruyama 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Biopharmaceutics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 5-1 Oe-honmachi, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 862-0973, Japan.
  • 2 Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University, 1-78-1, Sho-machi, Tokushima 770-8505, Japan.
  • 3 Division of Pharmacodynamics, Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy, 1-5-30, Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8512, Japan.
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia.
  • 5 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sojo University, 1-22-4 Ikeda, Nishi-ku, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan.
  • 6 Department of Biopharmaceutics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 5-1 Oe-honmachi, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 862-0973, Japan. Electronic address: tomaru@gpo.kumamoto-u.ac.jp.
Abstract

Nanosize plasma proteins could be used as a biomimetic drug delivery system (DDS) for Cancer treatment when loaded with Anticancer drugs based on the fact that plasma proteins can serve as a source of nutrients for Cancer cells. This prompted us to investigate the potential of α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) for this role because it is a nanosize plasma protein and binds a variety of Anticancer agents. Pharmacokinetic analyses indicated that AGP is distributed more extensively in tumor tissue than human serum albumin, which was already established as a Cancer DDS carrier. AGP is possibly being incorporated into tumor cells via endocytosis pathways. Moreover, a synthetic AGP-derived peptide which possesses a high ability to form an α-helix, as deduced from the primary structure of AGP, was also taken up by the tumor cells. AGP loaded with Anticancer agents, such as paclitaxel or nitric oxide, efficiently induced tumor cell death. These results suggest that AGP has the potential to be a novel DDS carrier for Anticancer agents.

Keywords

DDS carrier; anticancer agents; cancer; orosomucoid; α(1)-acid glycoprotein.

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