According the American Cancer Society, more than 700,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with liver cancer each year and of which, more than 600,000 die from the disease. We have developed a series of galactopyranose-derived single-chain amphiphiles (GSCA) that can self-assemble into vesicles in aqueous medium. We prepared 100 nm vesicles via extrusion through polycarbonate membrane and characterized them by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).  Next, we explored the possibilities of therapeutic applications with these amphiphiles. Since the liver expresses high levels of asialoglycoprotein receptors, we hypothesized that these GSCA-derived vesicles can target hepatocytes. Hep3B hepatocarcinoma cell lines treated with GSCA vesicles for 24 hours resulted in 13% cell death at 105 µM, 38% cell death at 200 µM, and 95% cell death at 367 µM compared to untreated controls. Furthermore, these vesicles can be used as a vehicle to deliver drugs such as doxorubicin to liver cells thereby providing a synergistic effect. These preliminary studies shed light into the possibility of targeting liver cancer by GSCA nanovesicles.<br/>

Galactosylated nanovesicles for liver targeting

2019 Fall National Meeting

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