Specific cancer stem cell-therapy by albumin nanoparticles functionalized with CD44-mediated targeting

BACKGROUND: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are highly proliferative and tumorigenic, which contributes to chemotherapy resistance and tumor occurrence. CSCs specific therapy may achieve excellent therapeutic effects, especially to the drug-resistant tumors. RESULTS: In this study, we developed a kind of targeting nanoparticle system based on cationic albumin functionalized with hyaluronic acid (HA) to target the CD44 overexpressed CSCs. All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) was encapsulated in the nanoparticles with ultrahigh encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of 93% and loading content of 8.37%. TEM analysis showed the nanoparticles were spherical, uniform-sized and surrounded by a coating layer consists of HA. Four weeks of continuously measurements of size, PDI and EE% revealed the high stability of nanoparticles. Thanks to HA conjugation on the surface, the resultant nanoparticles (HA-eNPs) demonstrated high affinity and specific binding to CD44-enriched B16F10 cells. In vivo imaging revealed that HA-eNPs can targeted accumulate in tumor-bearing lung of mouse. The cytotoxicity tests illustrated that ATRA-laden HA-eNPs possessed better killing ability to B16F10 cells than free drug or normal nanoparticles in the same dose, indicating its good targeting property. Moreover, HA-eNPs/ATRA treatment decreased side population of B16F10 cells significantly in vitro. Finally, tumor growth was significantly inhibited by HA-eNPs/ATRA in lung metastasis tumor mice. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the HA functionalized albumin nanoparticles is an efficient system for targeted delivery of antitumor drugs to eliminate the CSCs. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12951-018-0424-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.