Antitumor activity of tripterine via cell-penetrating peptide-coated nanostructured lipid carriers in a prostate cancer model

Ling Yuan,¹ Congyan Liu,² Yan Chen,² Zhenhai Zhang,² Lei Zhou,¹ Ding Qu<sup>2

1</sup>Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, ²Key Laboratory of New Drug Delivery System of Chinese Materia Medica, Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antitumor effect of cell-penetrating peptide-coated tripterine-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (CT-NLC) on prostate tumor cells in vitro and in vivo.
Methods: CT-NLC were developed to improve the hydrophilicity of tripterine. The antiproliferative effects of CT-NLC, tripterine-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (T-NLC), and free tripterine in a human prostatic carcinoma cell line (PC-3) and a mouse prostate carcinoma cell line (RM-1) were evaluated using an MTT assay. The advantage of CT-NLC over T-NLC and free tripterine with regard to antitumor activity in vivo was evaluated in a prostate tumor-bearing mouse model. The induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 cytokine content was investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to determine the effect of CT-NLC, T-NLC, and free tripterine on immune responses. Histologic and TUNEL assays were carried out to investigate the mechanisms of tumor necrosis and apoptosis.
Results: CT-NLC, T-NLC, and free tripterine showed high antiproliferative activity in a dose-dependent manner, with an IC₅₀ of 0.60, 0.81, and 1.02 µg/mL in the PC-3 cell line and 0.41, 0.54, and 0.89 µg/mL in the RM-1 cell line after 36 hours. In vivo, the tumor inhibition rates for cyclophosphamide, high-dose (4 mg/kg) and low-dose (2 mg/kg) tripterine, high-dose (4 mg/kg) and low-dose (2 mg/kg) T-NLC, high-dose (4 mg/kg) and low-dose (2 mg/kg) CT-NLC were 76.51%, 37.07%, 29.53%, 63.56%, 48.25%, 72.68%, and 54.50%, respectively, showing a dose-dependent pattern. The induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 cytokine content after treatment with CT-NLC and T-NLC was significantly higher than that of high-dose tripterine. Moreover, CT-NLC showed the expected advantage of inducing necrosis and apoptosis in prostate tumor cells.
Conclusion: CT-NLC noticeably enhanced antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo and showed dramatically improved cytotoxicity in normal cells in comparison with free tripterine. In summary, CT-NLC could be used as a promising drug delivery system for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Keywords: cell-penetrating peptide, nanostructured lipid carriers, tripterine, prostate cancer, antitumor activity