Floxuridine-containing nucleic acid nanogels for anticancer drug delivery

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 10; no. 18; pp. 8367 - 8371
• Main Authors: Ma, Yuan, Liu, Hongxia, Mou, Quanbing, Yan, Deyue, Zhu, Xinyuan, Zhang, Chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 01.01.2018
• Subjects: Acids; Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; Cancer; Chemical compounds; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - chemistry; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug delivery systems; Floxuridine - administration & dosage; HeLa Cells; Humans; Molecular chains; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nucleosides; Pharmacology; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA - chemistry; Solid phase synthesis; Strands; System effectiveness; Thymidine
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/C8NR01226A

Herein, we report the self-assemblies of floxuridine-containing DNA and RNA nanogels with a precise drug loading ratio as effective drug delivery systems. Based on the structural similarity between the nucleoside analogue floxuridine (F) and the natural nucleoside thymidine (T), F can be incorporated into nucleic acid strands via either solid-phase synthesis or enzyme-mediated transcription. With the retained property of molecular recognition, the synthesized F-integrated DNA or RNA strands can be used as building units and further assembled into nucleic acid based spherical nanogels, which can be efficiently taken up by cancer cells and then release the therapeutic agents. As such, the drug-containing nucleic acid nanogels exhibit excellent inhibitory activity against cancer cells.