Protein Toxin Chaperoned by LRP-1-Targeted Virus-Mimicking Vesicles Induces High-Efficiency Glioblastoma Therapy In Vivo

Glioblastoma is a most intractable and high-mortality malignancy because of its extremely low drug accessibility resulting from the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Here, it is reported that angiopep-2-directed and redox-responsive virus-mimicking polymersomes (ANG-PS) (angiopep-2 is a peptide targeting to low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-1 (LRP-1)) can efficiently and selectively chaperone saporin (SAP), a highly potent natural protein toxin, to orthotopic human glioblastoma xenografts in nude mice. Unlike chemotherapeutics, free SAP has a low cytotoxicity. SAP-loaded ANG-PS displays, however, a striking antitumor activity (half-maximal inhibitory concentration, IC₅₀ = 30.2 × 10^-9 m) toward U-87 MG human glioblastoma cells in vitro as well as high BBB transcytosis and glioblastoma accumulation in vivo. The systemic administration of SAP-loaded ANG-PS to U-87 MG orthotopic human-glioblastoma-bearing mice brings about little side effects, effective tumor inhibition, and significantly improved survival rate. The protein toxins chaperoned by LRP-1-targeted virus-mimicking vesicles emerge as a novel and highly promising treatment modality for glioblastoma.