GRP75-driven, cell-cycle-dependent macropinocytosis of Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles underlies distinct gene therapy effect in ovarian cancer

Practice of tumor-targeted suicide gene therapy is hampered by unsafe and low efficient delivery of plasmid DNA (pDNA). Using HIV-Tat-derived peptide (Tat) to non-covalently form Tat/pDNA complexes advances the delivery performance. However, this innovative approach is still limited by intracellular delivery efficiency and cell-cycle status. In this study, Tat/pDNA complexes were further condensed into smaller, nontoxic nanoparticles by Ca(2+) addition. Formulated Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles mainly use macropinocytosis for intercellular delivery, and their macropinocytic uptake was persisted in mitosis (M-) phase and highly activated in DNA synthesis (S-) phase of cell-cycle. Over-expression or phosphorylation of a mitochondrial chaperone, 75-kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP75), promoted monopolar spindle kinase 1 (MPS1)-controlled centrosome duplication and cell-cycle progress, but also driven cell-cycle-dependent macropinocytosis of Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles. Further in vivo molecular imaging based on DF (Fluc-eGFP)-TF (RFP-Rluc-HSV-ttk) system showed that Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles exhibited highly suicide gene therapy efficiency in mouse model xenografted with human ovarian cancer. Furthermore, arresting cell-cycle at S-phase markedly enhanced delivery performance of Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles, whereas targeting GRP75 reduced their macropinocytic delivery. More importantly, in vivo targeting GRP75 combined with cell-cycle or macropinocytosis inhibitors exhibited distinct suicide gene therapy efficiency. In summary, our data highlight that mitochondrial chaperone GRP75 moonlights as a biphasic driver underlying cell-cycle-dependent macropinocytosis of Tat/pDNA-Ca(2+) nanoparticles in ovarian cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01530-6.