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Conventional chemotherapy for tumor treatment remains flawed because it fails to limit cytotoxicity to a small set of selectable tissues. Active targeting techniques for the delivery of drugs to specific sites are increasingly used to enhance drug accumulation at tumor sites with the aim of reducing side effects in vivo. Liposomes, modified with different targeting ligands, are considered to be one of the most promising targeted drug carriers. Herein, novel linear and cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) peptide-based lipids were synthesized to develop modified liposomal drug delivery systems with active targeting and pH-sensitivity. The RGD-modified liposomes showed excellent active targeting ability for integrin α v β 3 receptors, resulting in improved cellular uptake. The modified liposomes also enhanced intracellular doxorubicin (DOX) release because of their degradation in an acidic environment. Consequently, the RGD-modified, DOX-loaded liposomes exhibited significant antitumor efficacy and low toxicity in vitro and in vivo. In particular, 5% cRGD-lipid modified DOX-loaded liposome showed the greatest inhibition of tumor growth in mice among the tested formulations, and much less toxicity than free DOX. In conclusion, the DOX-loaded pH-sensitive liposome modified with 5% cRGD-lipid developed in the current study provides a potential approach for improved tumor therapy., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Although a number of agents can achieve high response in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, safer and more active HIV inhibitors are still needed for the growing number of patients infected with resistant HIV virus strains. GW678248, is one of the most potent benzophenone derivatives, exhibiting high potency against a panel of HIV-1 virus (wild-type, K103N mutant, Y181C, etc.) at 1 nM/L concentrations. However, the safety issues associated with rash and liver metabolic enzymes ultimately led to discontinue its further development. As a continuation of our structural modifications on this template, in this manuscript, a new series of benzophenones are described as potential HIV inhibitors., Methods: All the title molecules were synthesized according to the routes in scheme 1 and scheme 2, and were tested for anti-HIV-1 activity using the MTT method. In the molecular simulation, the docking program of AutoDock 4.0.1 in parallel with the default parameters were used., Results: A series of novel benzophenone derivatives (BPs) with nanomolar anti-HIV-1 activity was identified. Of these inhibitors, analogue 10i (EC50 = 2.9 nmol/L), the most active inhibitor, was comparable to the lead compound in inhibiting the wild-type HIV-1 virus. Additionally, analogue 13b, which not only exhibited strong inhibitory activity against the HIV-1 virus (EC50 = 4.2 nmol/L), but also has very low cytotoxicity with a TI value of more than 219178.1 was also discovered., Conclusion: This study led to the identification of a series of benzophenone derivatives with nanomolar level of anti-HIV-1 activity. Analogue 10i and analogue 13b, with low cytotoxicity along with high activity are worthy of further development.

To investigate the cytotoxicity of the homemade peptide cationic liposome CDO14 and its efficacy of RNA interference (RNAi). MTT method was used to determine the cytotoxicity of the liposome to a human lung cancer cell line Luc-A549 that can express luciferase stably. Luciferase siRNA (Luc-siRNA) was transfected into Luc-A549 cells by CDO14. Contents of luciferase in the transfected cells were detected by luminous instrument and contents of total protein in these cells were detected by BCA method. Nude mice were inoculated with Luc-A549 cells in axilla to establish xenograft tumor model. Complexes of Luc-siRNA and the cationic liposomes were injected into the modeling mice via tail vein. Contents of luciferase in the transfected mice were detected by the whole body imaging system. The cytotoxicity of the homemade cationic liposome was similar to that of commercial liposome DOTAP, and lower than that of Lipo2000. The siRNA transfection efficacy mediated by CDO14 was higher than that mediated by DOTAP. The homemade peptide cationic liposome CDO14 is expected to serve as delivery vector in gene therapy because of its low cytotoxicity and high transfection efficiency.