Nanomedicine-based paclitaxel induced apoptotic signaling pathways in A562 leukemia cancer cells

•Amphiphilic pH-sensitive micelle increased the therapeutic efficacy of paclitaxel in leukemia.•The polymeric micelles increased the antitumor efficacy of PTX against K562 cancer cells.•The PTX-M remarkably increased the upregulation of pro-apoptotic protein expression.•PTX-M remarkably prolonged the plasma circulation time of PTX .

In the present study, we have synthesized an amphiphilic pH-sensitive structure of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-b-(poly lactic acid-co-poly(b-amino esters)) (MPEG-b-(PLA-co-PAE)) to load paclitaxel to increase the therapeutic efficacy in leukemia. The micelles exhibit excellent drug-loading capacities for paclitaxel (PTX) and exhibited a typical pH-responsive drug release pattern. The release of PTX from the micelles was significantly accelerated by decreasing pH from 7.4 to 5.0 which just fitted the pathological process. The most important advantage of this design is that the polymeric micelles provide an effective approach for rapid transport of cargo into the cytosol, which significantly increases the antitumor efficacy of PTX against K562 cancer cells. Paclitaxel-loaded polymer micelles (PTX-M) showed significantly higher cytotoxic effect than that of free PTX. The PTX-M exhibited a superior apoptosis effect in cancer cells compared to that of free PTX at all time points. We have showed that the PTX-M activated upstream of apoptosis signaling and inhibited the anti-apoptotic factors. The PTX-M remarkably increased the upregulation of Bax, caspase-3, caspase-9, and PARP-1 expression and downregulated the Bcl-2 expression in K562 cancer cells. The results show that PTX-M induced cell apoptosis through intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway. Importantly, PTX had a remarkably prolonged plasma circulation time after administration of PTX-M. Overall, this novel cancer specific, pH-responsive, and potentially in vivo stable unimolecular micelles may provide a very promising approach for targeted cancer therapy in the effective treatment of Leukemia.

Graphical abstractDownload full-size image