The impact of a chlorotoxin-modified liposome system on receptor MMP-2 and the receptor-associated protein ClC-3

Currently, it is unknown whether a receptor-associated protein will be affected when a ligand modified delivery system interacts with its receptor. Besides, chlorotoxin (ClTx)-modified liposomes can target to glioma cells, but the target molecule is not clear: MMP-2, ClC-3 or both? Here a comparative study of ClTx-conjugated liposomes was conducted on two types of tumor cells: U87, a human glioma cell line with high expression of both MMP-2 and ClC-3, and A549, a human lung cancer cell line with expression of only MMP-2. ClTx-modified liposomes behaved similarly in these two cancer cells in terms of in vitro cell uptake, endocytosis pathway, intracellular trafficking and in vivo targeting efficacy, though the two tested cell lines were very different in ClC-3 expression. These results revealed that the targeted delivery of ClTx modified liposomes to U87 tumor was MMP-2-mediated and not correlated with the chloride channel ClC-3. On the other hand, ClTx modified on the liposomes did activate the receptor-associated protein ClC-3 via the binding with MMP-2, leading to the inhibition on cell migration and chloride currents. This is significant because cell migration is a key step in tumor metastasis. Interestingly, higher in vitro cellular uptake and lower in vivo tumor accumulation of liposomal systems was found in U87 compared to the A549 model, possibly due to the biological differences between in vitro and in vivo models. In general, ClTx-modified delivery systems may potentially target to tumors other than glioma that express a high level of MMP-2, and its effect on ClC-3 may help prevent tumor metastasis.