Multifunctional Human Serum Albumin Fusion Protein as a Docetaxel Nanocarrier for Chemo-photothermal Synergetic Therapy of Ovarian Cancer

Modification of inorganic nanoparticles with human serum albumin (HSA) that load with chemotherapeutic agents has been reported to conduct chemophotothermal synergistic therapy of tumors. However, loading some highly insoluble drugs would cause the conformation disorder of HSA, which is unable to give full play to tumor targeting and biological compatibility. Besides, inorganic nanoparticles with too large of a size would appear with unsatisfactory metabolism and lead to biological toxicity. Herein, the recombinant protein integrating histidine (His), HSA, enzyme responsive site, and arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) by genetic engineering technology was developed to co-load docetaxel (DTX) and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) to construct RHMH18@AuD NPs. In which, DTX was encapsulated in the micelle part that self-assembled by histidine, while ultrasmall Au NPs were clustered in the HSA part through biomimetic mineralization. RHMH18@AuD NPs could maintain a consistent conformation with HSA and a uniform dispersion in saline. In vitro experiments verified that RHMH18@AuD NPs could target cancer cells followed by being structurally separated into RGD-HSA@Au and His@DTX under the restriction of MMP-2 enzymes. In vivo results verified the favorable biocompatibility and positive chemo-photothermal synergetic therapy efficiency of RHMH18@AuD NPs on a human ovarian tumor.

Automated summary

This study developed a recombinant protein integrating His, HSA, enzyme responsive site, and RGD to co-load DTX and Au NPs for cancer therapy. The RHMH18@AuD NPs exhibited favorable biocompatibility and positive chemo-photothermal synergetic therapy efficiency in in vitro and in vivo experiments.