Lipid-coated albumin-paclitaxel nanoparticles loaded with sorcin-siRNA reverse cancer chemoresistance via restoring intracellular calcium ion homeostasis

Chemoresistance is often a cause of the failure of chemotherapy in cancer treatment. Sorcin (SRI) is a soluble resistance-related calcium-binding protein involved in chemoresistant processes and is overexpressed in many chemoresistant cancer cells, including paclitaxel (PTX)-resistant ovarian cancer. Increased SRI can reduce the concentration of calcium ions in the cytosol and mitochondria and the decrease of calcium ion concentration prevents the occurrence of apoptosis. Here we examined the SRI expression in multiple cancers using a human TissueArray and found that SRI expression was significantly higher in malignant tumor tissues. Furthermore, SRI was overexpressed, while intracellular calcium concentration was decreased, in chemoresistant cancer cells. To restore intracellular calcium homeostasis and overcome chemoresistance, we developed lipid-coated albumin-PTX nanoparticles loaded with SRI-siRNA (LANP-PTX-siSRI) for PTX and SRI-siRNA co-delivery. LANP-PTX-siSRI had dual-target roles in the regulation of SRI and the delivery of PTX into chemoresistant cells. The LANP-PTX-siSRI inhibited the expression of SRI and enhanced intracellular calcium, leading to the induction of apoptosis and the inhibition of the growth of PTX-resistant cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the mechanism study revealed that the overexpression of SRI was associated with an impaired TGF-β signaling pathway. The administration of TGF-β1 inhibited two calcium-binding proteins SRI and S100A14. In conclusion, our data unveil that restoring intracellular calcium ion homeostasis via reducing SRI expression can reverse chemoresistance. Thus, the fabricated LANP-PTX-siSRI has a potentially therapeutical application. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01487-6.