Platelet-Mimicking Biotaxis Targeting Vasculature-Disrupted Tumors for Cascade Amplification of Hypoxia-Sensitive Therapy.

Abstract

Tumorous vasculature plays key roles in sustaining tumor growth. Vascular disruption is accompanied with the internal coagulation along with platelet recruitment and the resulting suppression of oxygen supply. We intend to artificially create this physiological process to establish the mutual feedback between vascular disruption and platelet-mimicking biotaxis for the cascade amplification of the hypoxia-dependent therapy. To prove this concept, mesoporous silica nanoparticles are co-loaded with a hypoxia-activated prodrug (HAP) and a vessel-disruptive agent and then coated with platelet membranes. Upon entering into tumors, our nanotherapeutic can disrupt local vasculature for tumor inhibition. This platelet membrane-coated nanoplatform shares the hemorrhage-tropic function with parental platelets and can be persistently recruited by the vasculature-disrupted tumors. In this way, the intratumoral devasation and the tumor targeting are biologically interdependent and mutually reinforced. Relying on this mutual feedback, tumorous hypoxia was largely promoted by more than 20 folds, accounting for the effective recovery of HAP s cytotoxicity. Consequently, our bio-inspired nano-design has demonstrated highly specific and effective antitumor potency via the biologically driven cooperation among intratumoral vascular disruption, platelet-mimicking biotaxis, cascade hypoxia amplification and hypoxia-sensitive chemotherapy. This study offers a paradigm of correlating the therapeutic design with the physiologically occurring events to achieve better therapy performance.