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Although the use of nanotechnology for the delivery of a wide range of medical treatments has potential to reduce adverse effects associated with drug therapy, tissue-specific delivery remains challenging. Here we show that nanoparticles made of grapefruit-derived lipids, which we call grapefruit-derived nanovectors, can deliver chemotherapeutic agents, short interfering RNA, DNA expression vectors and proteins to different types of cells. We demonstrate the in vivo targeting specificity of grapefruit-derived nanovectors by co-delivering therapeutic agents with folic acid, which in turn leads to significantly increasing targeting efficiency to cells expressing folate receptors. The therapeutic potential of grapefruit-derived nanovectors was further demonstrated by enhancing the chemotherapeutic inhibition of tumour growth in two tumour animal models. Grapefruit-derived nanovectors are less toxic than nanoparticles made of synthetic lipids and, when injected intravenously into pregnant mice, do not pass the placental barrier, suggesting that they may be a useful tool for drug delivery.
Pubmed ID: 23695661
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Cell line A-549 is a Cancer cell line with a species of origin Homo sapiens (Human)
View all literature mentionsMus musculus with name C57BL/6J from IMSR.
View all literature mentionsCell line CT26 is a Cancer cell line with a species of origin Mus musculus
View all literature mentionslaboratory mouse with name BALB/cAnNCrl from MGI.
View all literature mentionsMus musculus with name C57BL/6J from IMSR.
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