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A redox-responsive supramolecular hydrogel system was developed for delivering 10-hydroxy camptothecin (HCPT). The hydrogel was formed by cleaving disulfide bond. The combination of hydrophobic HCPT with hydrogel was a simple and effective way to improve the solubility of HCPT and the drug loading capacity of delivery system. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image revealed the self-assembled hydrogel was long and thin nanofibers with a width of < 10 nm. Rheological test verified the hydrogel had fine physical properties. In vitro release experiment showed that the accumulative releasing percentages within 72 h of HCPT-peptide hydrogels at 3.0%, 4.0%, 5.0% were 16.8%, 21.3%, and 26.8% respectively, which indicated the HCPT-peptide hydrogels had a significantly sustained-release characteristic. Besides, in vitro anticancer assay showed that HCPT-peptide hydrogels possessed a favorable anticancer efficacy. These results indicated that HCPT-peptide hydrogel had great potential for cancer treatment as a novel injectable drug delivery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidized single-wall carbon nanohorns (oxSWNHs) have shown great potential in drug delivery. The purpose of this study was to design an effective targeted drug delivery system (DDS) based on oxSWNHs, which could carry high dose of drug to tumor sites and improve the therapeutic efficacy with less adverse effects. OxSWNHs incorporated the anticancer drug vincristine (VCR) via physical adsorption, then wrapped DSPE-PEG-IGF-IR monoclonal antibody (mAb) through an amide liker to obtain the drug delivery system, VCR@oxSWNHs-PEG-mAb. The in vitro release behavior study indicated that the DDS had good sustained release and the cumulative release of VCR was 80% at 144 h. Compared with free VCR, the tumor targeting drug delivery efficiently enhanced the cytotoxicity in cultured MCF-7 cells in vitro , and afforded higher antitumor efficacy without obvious toxic effects to normal organs in tumor mice in vivo . In addition, the targeted DDS could reduce the toxicity of VCR to the living mice. This study demonstrated that VCR@oxSWNHs-PEG-mAb might be promising for high treatment efficacy with minimal side effects in future cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]