Nanoradiosensitizer with good tissue penetration and enhances oral cancer radiotherapeutic effect

Low dose non-toxic disulfide cross-linked micelle (DCM) encapsulated paclitaxel (PTX) was found to be highly efficacious as a radiosensitizer against oral cancer preclinical model. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy was locally administered for three consecutive days 24 h after intravascular injection of DCM-[PTX] at 5 mg/kg PTX. DCM-[PTX] NPs combined with conventional radiotherapy (2 Gy) resulted in a 1.7-fold improvement in ther-apeutic efficacy compared to conventional PTX plus radiotherapy. Interestingly, we found that radiotherapy can decrease tight junctions and increase the accumulation of DCM-[PTX] in tumor sites. Stereotactic body radio-therapy (SBRT) given at 6 Gy was used to further investigate the synergistic anti-tumor effect. Tumor tissues were collected to analyze the relationship between the time interval after SBRT and the biodistribution of the nano -materials. Compared to combination DCM-[PTX] with conventional radiation dose, combination DCM-PTX with SBRT was found to be more efficacious in inhibiting tumor growth.

Automated summary

Low dose non-toxic disulfide cross-linked micelle (DCM) encapsulated paclitaxel (PTX) has been found to be highly effective as a radiosensitizer against oral cancer preclinical model. The combination of DCM-[PTX] with conventional radiotherapy resulted in a significant improvement in therapeutic efficacy compared to conventional PTX plus radiotherapy. Interestingly, radiotherapy can enhance the accumulation of DCM-[PTX] in tumor sites by decreasing tight junctions. Furthermore, the combination of DCM-PTX with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) was found to be more effective in inhibiting tumor growth than the combination with conventional radiation dose.